Trade, Russia, Middle East on the table as Xi Jinping, Emmanuel Macron lunch high up in the Pyrenees
- Airport welcome by French President Emmanuel Macron is followed by motorcade to restaurant up one of the steepest Tour de France challenges
- Relaxed setting chosen so Macron and Chinese leader Xi Jinping can speak frankly on myriad mutual grievances and grounds for cooperation
In the blustery Pyrenees mountains on Tuesday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping had lunch with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. On the menu: everything from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Middle East crisis to trade, biodiversity and climate change.
They were expected to discuss grounds for cooperation, such as environmental and climatic issues, and – according to media reports – attempt to thrash out more agreements to be added to the 37 intergovernmental accords signed on Monday.
These covered everything from artificial intelligence governance and battery manufacturing, to the war in Gaza and access to the Chinese market for French pork farmers.
Xi’s visit has yet to deliver major Airbus orders, a staple on the French agenda, with Reuters reporting that negotiations on plane purchases would go down to the wire.
After being greeted at the airport by Macron, Xi’s motorcade climbed the Col du Tourmalet, a mountain ascent that provides cyclists with one of the steepest challenges of the Tour de France.
But upon arriving at l’Etape du Berger, a restaurant owned by Eric Abadie, a close friend of Macron’s, there would be further geopolitical hills to climb.
Ukraine features prominently in Macron’s talking points, as do concerns about China’s trade and economic policies.
“We respect the long-standing ties between China and Russia and the decades-long efforts to stabilise the relationship,” Macron told Xi on Monday.
“In view of this complex history, we welcome the commitments of the Chinese authorities to refrain from selling any weapons or aid to Moscow and to strictly control the export of dual-use goods.”
Xi, on the other hand, cautioned against using the Ukraine crisis “to cast blame, smear a third country and incite a new cold war”.
There is no such thing as China’s overcapacity problem
This was in response to a European Union investigation into subsidies in China’s electric vehicle sector, launched by Brussels with full support from Paris.
In a loaded gesture before Monday night’s state banquet, Macron presented Xi with two bottles of cognac, to thank him for “his openness regarding the provisional measures on French cognac and his wish not to see them applied”.
After European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – who attended a trilateral meeting with Macron and Xi on Monday – hit out at overcapacity in the Chinese economy, saying “the world cannot absorb China’s surplus production” in hi-tech goods, Xi bit back.
“Whether viewed from the perspective of comparative advantage or global market demand, there is no such thing as China’s overcapacity problem,” Xi told a media briefing, adding that Beijing’s huge output of hi-tech green goods would help the planet meet its climate obligations.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping meets French leader Emmanuel Macron at Elysee Palace
Common ground was found, however, on some of the major global issues of the day.
A 10-point statement was released on the Middle East, just after news broke that Hamas officials had approved a ceasefire deal for Gaza put forward by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. In the statement, Macron and Xi “expressed their opposition to an Israeli offensive on Rafah, which would lead to a humanitarian catastrophe on a new scale”.
An agreement on AI “emphasised the importance of strengthening international cooperation in a context of rapid technological development to guarantee international security and stability, sovereignty and respect for fundamental rights”.
On the sidelines of a business conference tied to Xi’s visit, Chinese and French enterprises also announced a series of deals.
These included an agreement between France’s Orano and China’s Xiamen Tungsten New Energy to forge a “global strategic partnership” in the battery industry, and a memorandum of understanding between French company Fives and Chinese firm Envision to cooperate in battery cell assembly in France.
A long list of Chinese companies were invited to this part of the summit, including some that have been in the cross hairs of European regulators. Among them were telecoms giants Huawei Technologies and ZTE, and rail equipment provider CRRC.
On trade, China agreed to open its market to French exports of pork offal and processed pork proteins, while both sides agreed to “intensify their exchanges” on opening the Chinese cosmetics markets to French companies, in a nod to a long-standing European economic gripe.
From the Pyrenees, Xi will fly to Serbia – a pointed choice in his three-nation itinerary, given he would land in Belgrade on the 25th anniversary of the Nato bombing of the Chinese embassy there.
There, and on the next stop in Hungary, Xi can expect to face less awkward questioning than in Paris, given his close ties with their respective leaders.
