In a statement issued by his ministry, Szijjártó said OTS members could play an important role in ensuring physical ties between East and West in the coming years.

He added that the value of Hungary's observer status in the OTS had appreciated as the European Union "globalized" the negative effects of the war in Ukraine through policy measures that "did much damage" to East-West cooperation.

"Europe's competitiveness cannot improve without a recovery of East-West cooperation," he said. He claimed that a decoupling of the economies of Europe and China would be a "huge mistake."