Macron and von der Leyen press China's Xi on Ukraine and fair trade at Paris summit

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged Xi Jinping at a summit in Paris on Monday, May 6, to use Beijing's influence to end the war Russia against Ukraine, also telling the Chinese leader to accept fair global policy. business rules.

Xi's first visit to Europe since 2019 will also see him hold talks in Serbia and Hungary. Xi has said he wants to find peace in Ukraine even though analysts do not expect major changes in Chinese policy. But his choice of France as the only major European power on his route indicates the importance that the head of the one-party communist state of more than 1.4 billion people places on Macron as an intermediary of EU, two years after the invasion of Russia.

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Opening a first trilateral meeting attended by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Macron said coordination with Beijing on “major crises”, including Ukraine, was “absolutely decisive” and called for “fair rules for all” in trade between Europe and China. “The future of our continent will very clearly depend on our ability to continue to develop relations with China in a balanced way,” Macron said.

Xi said China and the EU should “remain partners” and “conduct strategic coordination” and thus “make new contributions to global peace and development.”

Von der Leyen said she would push for “fair” competition with China in global trade, adding that in previous discussions with Xi she had “made clear that current imbalances in access to market are not sustainable and must be corrected. “We have been very clear about our relationship with China, which is one of the most complex, but also one of the most important,” she said.

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Macron and von der Leyen indicated that trade was a priority in the negotiations, stressing that Europe must defend its “strategic interests” in its economic relations with China. “Europe will not hesitate to take the difficult decisions necessary to protect its economy and security,” she said. Von der Leyen said there were “imbalances which remain significant” and “a matter of great concern”, pointing to Chinese subsidies for electric cars and steel which were “flooding the European market”. China also continued to “massively support its manufacturing sector” whose excess production could not be absorbed by the rest of the world.

“A China that plays fair is good for all of us,” von der Leyen said after his talks in Paris with Xi Jinping and Macron. While expressing confidence in possible progress in the negotiations, von der Leyen also said that “we are ready to fully use our trade defense instruments if necessary”, adding that “Europe cannot accept practices that distort the market”.

During the discussions, Xi denied there was a problem of Chinese overcapacity in global trade and said China and Europe should address their trade differences through “dialogue and consultation, and take into account legitimate concerns of everyone,” according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The French cognac industry, based in the southwest of the country, is closely following the negotiations, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China, its second largest market, could be a retaliation measure by Beijing for trade tensions.

“Involve China”

One of Macron's main priorities will be to warn Xi of the danger of supporting Russia, with Western officials concerned that, although officially neutral in the Ukraine conflict, China is essentially supporting Russia, which is already using Chinese machine tools in weapons production. Beijing's ties with Moscow have rather warmed after the invasion and the West above all wants China not to supply weapons to Russia and not risk tipping the scales in the conflict.

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“It is in our interest to bring China to bear on the stability of the international order,” Macron said in an interview with the British newspaper. The Economist published Thursday. Like von der Leyen, Macron also said in the same interview that trade was a priority in the negotiations, stressing that Europe must defend its “strategic interests” in its economic relations with China.

In a column for the French newspaper Le Figaro, Xi said he wanted to work with the international community to find ways to resolve the conflict sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while emphasizing that China was “neither a party nor a participant.” “We hope that peace and stability will return quickly to Europe and intend to work with France and the entire international community to find the right paths to resolve the crisis,” he wrote.

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“Further efforts are needed to reduce the delivery to Russia of dual-use goods that end up on the battlefield,” von der Leyen said after the talks, adding that “this affects EU-China relations.” She added that France and the EU “are also counting on China to use all its influence over Russia to end Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine,” saying that Europe and China “have a common interest in peace and security”.

Von der Leyen also said she was “confident” that Xi would continue to play an “important role” in de-escalating tensions over Russia's nuclear threats, hours after President Vladimir Putin ordered nuclear weapons drills involving troops based near Ukraine.

The other two countries Xi chose for his tour, Serbia and Hungary, are considered among the friendliest to Moscow in Europe.

“One of the great predators”

Rights groups are urging Macron to bring up human rights during negotiations, accusing China of failing to respect the rights of the Uyghur Muslim minority and keeping dozens of journalists behind bars. “President Macron should make clear to Xi Jinping that Beijing's crimes against humanity have consequences for China's relations with France,” said Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch.

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Press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders denounced the visit, setting up a truck in central Paris with the names of 119 journalists detained by China and calling Xi “one of the great predators of freedom of the press.

On Tuesday, Macron will take Xi, accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan, to the Pyrenees mountains, to a region he used to visit as a child, for a day of less public and more intimate discussions. However, analysts doubt Macron can exert much influence over the Chinese leader, even with a lavish red carpet welcome and a trip to the bracing mountain air of the Col du Tourmalet, more than 2,000 meters above sea level. , Tuesday. .

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Le Monde with AFP