BUDAPEST, October 18. /TASS/. Europe needs to boost ties with the East, primarily China, as the West has lost its competitive advantage, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at the Belt and Road conference in Beijing.

"The prime minister explained that the era of the West's competitive advantage has come to an end, the eastern world has become stronger, and Europe’s dilemma now is to either block the global economy or compete, to be protectionists or seek opportunities for cooperation and engagement that this new era offers," Bertalan Havasi, a spokesman for the head of the Hungarian prime minister, told reporters.

According to the spokesman, Orban said that "Europe broke off cooperation with Russia over the war in Ukraine, thus taking a huge step toward blocking" established global economic ties. Some politicians in the European Union now "want to go even further as they talk about 'disengagement' and 'risk reduction,' which would mean isolating the European and Chinese economies from each other," the prime minister was quoted as saying.

"Orban said Hungarians would like a period of engagement instead of blocking because that would give Europe a chance to regain its competitiveness," Havasi was quoted as saying by the MTI news agency. "Hungary is ready for further cooperation with China and all countries supporting engagement."

He said the prime minister believes that "international politics, if it returns to the roots of engagement and mutual respect, can bring hope for peace and economic development."