Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Paris today, the first his first visit to Europe since 2019. After France, he will visit Serbia and Hungary, AFP and Xinhua recall, quoted by BTA.
Xi's European tour will be under the sign of balanced diplomacy. In France, he is expected to discuss more diverse topics of bilateral importance with French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron intends to emphasize to Xi the importance of the factor of reciprocity in trade relations, according to AFP. As for the issue of the war in Ukraine, the agency recalls that the Chinese president continues to advertise his support for Russia.
For a year, France has been urging Xi to use his influence to bring Russia to its senses on Ukraine. At the same time, Serbia and Hungary, which are other stages of Xi's tour, remain close to Moscow.
Tomorrow, Xi Jinping will have a meeting with French President Macron, who previously consulted on these talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Macron and Xi will also mark 60 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and China during this bilateral meeting.
On this occasion, already today upon his arrival in Paris, Xi stated that relations between China and France are a model of peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation between countries with different systems, Xinhua reported.
Tomorrow morning, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will join the two leaders at the Elysee Palace for a discussion session in which issues related to the trade disagreements between China and the EU will be raised, adds France Press. And these disagreements are many. The EU has recently stepped up investigations into Chinese state subsidies in several industrial sectors, notably electric vehicles.
In an interview with "Tribune" today, Macron acknowledged that Europeans are divided on the strategy they should adopt in the face of the trade imbalance with China, which continues to export massive goods to Europe. Macron pleaded for national security to be better protected, for Europeans to be much more realistic in protecting European interests and to seek reciprocity in trade relations with China. Beijing, for its part, sees such measures as protectionist, and Chinese authorities have launched their own investigation into state subsidies targeting French cognac in particular. However, Macron intends to express objections to this step.
At this stage, the two sides are unlikely to sign any significant contract, but there will be investment discussions until the end. A Franco-Chinese economic forum is also scheduled for tomorrow at the "Marini" theater.
Tomorrow afternoon, there will be a protocol ceremony to welcome Xi to Paris, which will take place at the historic Home of the Invalids complex. Then the two leaders will speak to the media.
France intends to ask China to support an Olympic truce in all conflicts during the Paris Olympics this summer.
After official meetings tomorrow, Tuesday, Macron will take Xi to the Pyrenees, a place the French leader visited with his maternal grandparents when he was a schoolboy. There the two leaders will be accompanied by their wives.
At the same time, several hundred Tibetan activists gathered today in Paris at the Place de la République to criticize the state of human rights in China. They carried banners that depicted China as a "predator" and "colonial regime" or to which it was said: "No to the colonial regime".
In Serbia and Hungary, it will be from Wednesday to Friday.