Xi Jinping received Macron with military honors.
(Photo: dpa)
Beijing China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron met in Beijing on Thursday. “I am firmly convinced that China plays an important role in building peace,” Macron said shortly before in Chinese on the short message service Twitter about the war in Ukraine.
“I know I can count on you to bring Russia back to sanity and everyone around the negotiating table,” Macron said to Xi. He wanted to “discuss and advance” the creation of peace in his talks. Macron added that Russian aggression against Ukraine is a blow to stability.
Xi Jinping received Macron with military honors. At a meeting with Parliament President Zhao Leji, Macron also emphasized the impact of the Ukraine war on security and the global strategic balance.
It is also important that China ratifies international agreements quickly – such as one on biodiversity in the high seas, the UN Convention on the Legal Immunity of States and their goods and the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights, the Élysée Palace said.
The President of the European Commission previously met with the new Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang in Beijing. At the beginning of the talks on Thursday, von der Leyen pointed out that China and the EU had benefited greatly from their growing cooperation, but that the relationship had become “more complex” in recent years. It is therefore important to discuss all aspects that will help the EU and China “steer through a difficult and unpredictable environment”.
China is of “great importance for Europe”. There are mutual dependencies and a long common history. In a personal note, von der Leyen remembered her father Ernst Albrecht, who had already traveled to China as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony in the mid and late 1980s.
Meeting in threes planned
At that time he brought the first cooperation agreement between a Chinese province and a federal state from Anhui. It was one of the impetus for the far-reaching relationships that were built.
The President of the Commission later wanted to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping to talk about the Ukraine conflict, among other things.
The President of the Commission later wanted to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron together with China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping.
(Photo: AP)
Macron had already spoken about the Ukraine conflict in a previous meeting with the new Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang. It was also about the access of French companies to the Chinese market, especially in aviation, food and finance, as the Élysée Palace announced.
More: Macron wants to hold Beijing accountable for a Ukraine solution