Hungary says Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit in May

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - China's President Xi Jinping will visit Hungary on May 8-10, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff told a press conference on Thursday.

Gergely Gulyas said that it was in Hungary's interest to have a good economic relationship with as many countries as possible and that China was one of the leading powers of the world, "stronger than the European Union".

"Hungary thinks that it is not worth setting up ideological boundaries when it comes to economic relationships and we are happy about the Chinese president's two-day visit," Gulyas said.

In February, China offered to support Hungary on public security issues, going beyond trade and investment relations, when a senior Beijing official visited Budapest and met Orban and Interior Minister Sandor Pinter.

The enhanced cooperation between the two countries comes as Hungary has sought to assert its independence from Western countries in the past decade under Orban.

President Xi will also meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris in May.

(Reporting by Anita Komuves and Boldizsar Gyori; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)