French President Emmanuel Macron seeks to sway China's Xi Jinping on Ukraine
Emmanuel Macron was on Monday set to warn Chinese leader Xi Jinping against backing Russia in the conflict over Ukraine but also seek to enlist his help in finding an end to the war.
Xi is making a state visit to France marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between France and China. The trip is his first to Europe since 2019 and will also see him visit Serbia and Hungary later in the week.
But Xi's 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 of Ukraine.
Xi and Macron are to hold a day of talks in Paris on Monday from 0830 GMT — also including EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen for a morning trilateral meeting — followed by a state banquet hosted by Macron at the Elysee.
Tuesday will see Macron take Xi, who is accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan, to the Pyrenees mountains to an area he used to visit as a boy for a day of less public and more intimate talks.
In an op-ed for Le Figaro daily, Xi said that he wanted to work with the international community to find ways to solve the conflict sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while emphasising that China was «neither a party nor a participant» in the conflict.
«We hope that peace and stability will return quickly to Europe, and intend to work with France and the entire international community to
