Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto attended the launching ceremony on Monday of the construction of the 108-kilometre-long Novi Sad-Kelebija railroad, which is part of the future high-speed Belgrade-Budapest railway, Croatian state agency Hina said.

The non-governmental investigative network Birn had previously warned that the project was to have been completed by 2018. Attending the launching ceremony, Vucic said that the project would “change the face of the country” and that it symbolised “Serbia’s progress.”

He added that the high-speed railway is important for the future of both countries and that the section from Belgrade to the Hungarian border should be completed in three years’ time. Thanking Hungary for its support for this and other projects, Vucic said that “had it not been for (Prime Minister Viktor) Orban and Szijjarto, we would not have such good relations.”

“There is no European forum at which Szijjarto and Orban aren’t the bravest in supporting Serbia on its European journey in all areas,” he said.

“We, the Hungarians and the Serbs make decisions, having in mind our national interests and we have decided that we wish to benefit from the new world order which is emerging in the East. Both countries cooperate with China on pragmatic foundations and in mutual interest and both can benefit a lot from that,” said Hungary’s Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto.

The Belgrade-Budapest railway is valued at €4 billion, and a half of that amount will be for the section in Serbia. The project is part of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative “which has become global,” Hina said, citing the Serbian Beta news agency.

The Balkans Investigative Reporting Network (Birn) said in early November that the project was running late, and that Serbia had paid more than $4.7 million due to a delayed instalment of a Russian loan. An additional $30 million was paid for “errors in the project application.”

“During the election campaign at the end of 2015, the then prime minister, Aleksandar Vucic announced that the railway between the Serbian and Hungarian capitals would be completed in two and a half years’ time,” Hina said, citing N1 television, which quoted Birn.