International

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

The French and EU Commission Presidents spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping in a trilateral meeting, kicking off Xi's two-day state visit to France with discussions of 'fair rules for all' in trade, as well as China's exports to Russia during its war in Ukraine, AFP reports.

French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen pressed Xi Jinping at a summit in Paris on Monday, May 6, pressed Xi Jinping to use Beijing's influence to halt the Russian war against Ukraine, also telling the Chinese leader to accept fair global trade 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 if analysts do not expect major changes in Chinese policy. But his choice of France as the sole major European power on his itinerary indicates the importance the leader of the one-party Communist state of more than 1.4 billion people accords to Macron as an EU powerbroker over two years into Russia's invasion.

Opening an initial 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 urged "fair rules for all" in Europe-China trade. "The future of our continent will very clearly depend on our ability to continue to develop relations with China in a balanced manner," Macron said.

Xi said China and the EU should "remain partners" and "carry out strategic coordination" and thus "make new contributions to world peace and development."

Von der Leyen said she will press for "fair" competition with China in global trade, adding that in previous talks with Xi she had "made clear that the current imbalances in market access are not sustainable and need to be addressed." "We have been very clear-eyed about our relationship with China, which is one of the most complex, but also one of the most important," she said.

Both Macron and von der Leyen have indicated that trade was a priority in the talks, underscoring that Europe must defend its "strategic interests" in its economic relations with China. "Europe will not waver from making tough decisions needed to protect its economy and its security," she said. Von der Leyen said there were "imbalances that remain significant" and "a matter of great concern," singling out Chinese subsidies for electric cars and steel that were "flooding the European market." China also continued to "massively support its manufacturing sector" whose surplus production could not be absorbed by the rest of the world.

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