Hungarian FM checks in from Beijing military parade

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó posted from the victory parade in Beijing, China on Wednesday morning, where he attended the event alongside Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others.

"We are interested in the cooperation between East and West, and Hungary has already demonstrated the significant benefits of a civilized East-West cooperation," the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade wrote in his Facebook post. A few hours later he posted again, this time with a shorter text, but basically the same content as the first one. In the second post, however, he shared a group photo of the politicians participating in the parade, with him being visible towards the mid-left of the photo.

Other than Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Szijjártó was the only representative of a NATO and EU member state to attend the huge military parade organized by China to commemorate its victory over Japan in World War II. In his post, Szijjártó reiterated the argument often used by the Hungarian government, namely, that the world is once again moving toward forming blocs, which is contrary to Hungary's interests.

The main objectives of the parade are to strengthen patriotic sentiment and to demonstrate the power of the Chinese army. But with the event, Beijing is also sending a message to the international community that it is a global, unavoidable player. The Western press has clearly perceived the parade as a show of force by the China-led "global south," which seeks to offer an alternative to the Western world order. There is no doubt that the meeting provides Xi Jinping with an opportunity to build a system of alliances against Western influence. The materials produced by the Chinese state media promoting the parade have also served to build a cult of personality around Xi Jinping, thereby legitimizing the authoritarian nature of the Chinese regime.