BUDAPEST, November 21. /TASS/. The age of Western supremacy is over, and Europe needs to adapt to new geopolitical realities in order to survive, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.
Western countries have sought to impose their development model on the world in recent decades, believing that "other nations will agree to that in exchange for economic and financial advantages," he pointed out, addressing the fifth international conference Eurasia Forum in Budapest. "This ideal has failed," the Hungarian premier stated.
"Asian countries have grown stronger, demonstrating their ability to rise, thrive and establish themselves as independent centers of economic and political power. As a result, the center of the world economy has shifted to the East, and the economies of eastern countries are now developing four times as fast as Western economies," Orban noted.
He believes that these changes are causing losses to the European Union and it will continue like that "unless Europe finds its place in relation to Asia" and builds mutually beneficial cooperation across Eurasia.
Meanwhile, Orban emphasized that Hungary does not plan to wait for the EU to get itself in order and adopt a new strategy that is built on cooperation rather than bloc divisions. According to the Hungarian prime minister, Budapest already has plans to play the role of a bridge between the West and the East, boosting trade and economic cooperation both with its EU allies and partners in China, South Korea and other Asian countries.