Xi and Orban held talks in Budapest as part of the Chinese leader's final stop on a five-day European tour that has also taken in Serbia and France. In a press conference after the talks, Orban hailed the "continuous, unbroken friendship" between the two countries since he took office in 2010, and pledged that Hungary would continue to welcome more Chinese investment. "I would like to assure the president [of China] that Hungary will continue to provide fair conditions for Chinese companies investing in our country, and we will create opportunities for the most modern Western technologies and the most modern Eastern technologies to meet and build cooperation in Hungary," Orban said. In December, Hungary announced that Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD will build its first European plant in the south of the country -- a move that could shake up the continent's car industry. Hungary also hosts several Chinese battery factories and hopes to become a global hub for lithium-ion battery production. It has also embarked on a railway project that is part of the Belt and Road Initiative, linking Hungary to the Chinese-controlled port of Piraeus in Greece as an entry point for Chinese goods into central and eastern Europe. Xi said on Friday that the Belt and Road Initiative is "highly consistent with Hungary's strategy of opening to the East" and that China supports Budapest playing a leading role in promoting ties with the 27-nation bloc. "China appreciates Hungary's firm commitment to the 'One China' policy, and will continue to support Hungary in its economic development," Xi Jinping said, mentioning projects such as a Chinese-funded railway linking Budapest to Belgrade. He also expressed his hope that Hungary would promote relations between China and the European Union when Budapest takes over the presidency of the Council of the EU from July. Hungarian and Chinese officials signed a strategic partnership agreement and 18 other accords and memorandums of understanding, but no major new investments were announced at the press conference. However, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto later said in a Facebook video that talks had begun on China developing a cargo railway line from Budapest and a rail link between the Hungarian capital and Budapest's Ferihegy Airport. Orban, a nationalist populist leader who has sought deeper ties with Beijing while distancing himself from his EU partners, noted at the press conference that three-quarters of the investments in Hungary last year came from China, and spoke of Beijing's role in shifting the global balance of power. "If we look back at the global economy and trade 20 years ago, it is completely different from what we see today," Orban said, adding: "At that time, we lived in a unipolar world and now we live in a multipolar world order, and one of the main pillars of this new world order is China." Orban also said that Hungary would seek to expand economic cooperation with China in the field of nuclear energy, as it currently works with Russia to add a reactor to its Paks plant, which is due to be operational by the end of the decade. Read Also: Xi Jinping arrives in Hungary for two-day official visit (Portuguese version)