Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday (May 06) attended a China-France – EU trilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
Expressing his delight in meeting with Macron and von der Leyen again, President Xi noted that France is the first stop of his overseas visit this year, and that the trilateral meeting amplifies the Europe-wide significance of this visit.
China always approaches its relations with the European Union (EU) from a strategic and long-term perspective, and regards Europe as an important dimension in its major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and an important partner on its path toward Chinese modernization, Xi said.
In an X post, the EU President said that that she had met the Chinese President for the third time in just over one year that they had an ‘open and honest exchange on points where we see eye-to-eye and on points where we have differences… Our topics ranged from geopolitical issues to climate change and of course our economic relations’.
The Chinese President arrived in Paris on Sunday for a state visit to France at the invitation of President Macron and attended a welcome ceremony held by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at Les Invalides in Paris on Monday.
This is the second state visit by China’s head of state to France in five years and coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
France is the first leg of Xi’s three-European country tour, which will later take him to Serbia and Hungary at the invitations of President Aleksandar Vucic of the Republic of Serbia and President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary.
Xi’s entourage includes his wife Peng Liyuan, Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, and Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and foreign minister.
