On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will arrive in China for a three-day state visit where they will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
A delegation of more than 50 CEOs will accompany Macron, and he will also meet with the French business community.
However, all eyes will be on how he and von der Leyen will discuss the war in Ukraine with the Chinese leadership.
Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, an associate research fellow at Sweden’s Institute for Security and Development Policy, stated that the primary issue that Macron and von der Leyen will likely want to push is to seek support from China in dealing with Russia and to advance on that front.
“Realistically, I don’t think we can expect much, but I think clearly everyone agrees that that’s the priority.”
China is officially neutral on the war but has propped up Russia economically and diplomatically in the face of Western sanctions. Xi also has the ear of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he shares a close friendship spanning more than a decade. In March, the duo signed a Sino-Russian strategic partnership during Xi’s state visit to Moscow.
G20 Summit
At the G20 summit in November, Macron called for China to play a “greater mediation role” in the war but Beijing has yet to advance its role beyond issuing a 12-point peace plan that has received a lukewarm response in Kyiv and Western capitals.
Macron’s trip is his first to China since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in early 2020, when Beijing effectively shut its borders to travel. The French leader last visited the country in 2019.
His trip follows one made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in November but it has already taken a different tone.
Scholz’s trip was widely criticised in Europe as too conciliatory towards Beijing, with the German leader’s efforts to shore up the country’s business interests taking precedence over pushing China to join the negotiating table over Ukraine
Macron and United States President Joe Biden agreed in a telephone call ahead of the French leader’s trip to engage China to hasten the end of the war in Ukraine, the Elysee Palace said on Wednesday.