Donald Trump Jr. tells East Europe to pick the U.S. over China for deals

Donald Trump Jr. told a business forum in Budapest that Hungary and the region should pick the US over China as its economic partner, according to the Portfolio news website.

Trump Jr., who’s holding a roadshow headlined “Trump Business Vision 2025,” said China posed a bigger threat than Russia to the region, according to the business site, which helped organize the closed-door meeting late Friday with Hungarian entrepreneurs.

US President Donald Trump’s eldest son, who’s also an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, hailed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s nationalist vision and underscored the close ties between the two countries’ leaders, Portfolio reported.

At the same time, his call to shun China is likely to sit uncomfortably in Hungary and other parts of eastern Europe, which have opened up their economies to investments from the Asian nation. 

Read more: US Envoy Tells Orban’s Hungary to Be Wary of Chinese Investments

Orban has attracted billions of dollars of investments from China, including in the battery sector and the electric vehicle industry, with BYD Co. building a factory in Hungary’s south. Hungary and Serbia are also constructing a Budapest-Belgrade freight line, which is part of China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative.

Trump Jr. was in the Serbian capital on Saturday, his third visit to the Balkan country since October, before traveling to Bulgaria on Sunday and Romania on Monday, where he’ll hold similar events as he pitches for business opportunities.

Executives of more than 30 biggest Serbian companies met with the US president’s son in Belgrade, seizing the “opportunity to talk to a man who is at the center of global events and knows what is happening in world markets,” said Marko Cadez, head of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, in comments to Bloomberg Adria. 

“We did not leave any sector uncovered,” and discussions included tourism, information technology and auto industry, according to Cadez.  

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