Beijing, 29 April 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit France, Hungary and Serbia in early May, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman announced in Beijing on Monday.

Xi will travel to Europe from May 5-10, the ministry said. His exact itinerary has not yet been announced.

The 70-year-old last visited France in March 2019, on a trip which also included visits to Italy and Monaco.

The Chinese head of state is set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, just a few weeks after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited China in mid-April.

Xi's visit to Serbia, meanwhile, could coincide with the 25th anniversary of NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999.

Three Chinese journalists were killed in the attack, which NATO called an accident but was met with fury in Beijing.

Serbia has been involved in formal negotiations for EU membership since 2014, but it maintains close relations with the People's Republic, with President Aleksandar Vučić visiting Beijing in October.

The Balkan state is a member of the Belt and Road Initative (BRI), China's global investment and infrastructure project.

Hungary is one of the few EU member states to also be part of the BRI. Chinese investment has helped to finance the construction of a 350-kilometre high-speed rail link between Budapest and Belgrade.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is considered friendly with China and has recently signed deals with Chinese companies.

BYD, China's largest electric vehicle manufacturer, plans to build a plant in Hungary, while the central European country is also set to host a factory for Chinese battery giant CATL.

Photo: MIA archive