Paris: China’s President Xi Jinping arrived at the French presidential palace on Monday for a two-day state visit that is expected to focus both on trade disputes and diplomatic efforts to convince Beijing to use its influence to move Russia toward ending the war in Ukraine.
In Paris, Xi first joined a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meant to address broader EU concerns.
Macron said in his introductory remarks the meeting would first address trade issues and how to ensure “fair competition”, then the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“We are at a turning point in our history” as the Europe-China relationship is faced with challenges, Macron said.
The talks are aimed at sharing “both our shared positions and our concerns, to try to overcome them, because the future of our continent will very clearly also depend on our ability to develop balanced relations with China”, he said.
Macron, a strong advocate of Europe’s economic sovereignty, wants to raise French concerns about a Chinese antidumping investigation into cognac and other European brandy, and tensions over French cosmetics and other sectors.
In a recent speech, he denounced trade practices of both China and the United States as shoring up protections and subsidies. At the start of the meeting in Paris, Xi said “the world today has entered a new period of turbulence and change”.