Ursula and Macron’s visit will press China on taking further steps to halt the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The President of the European Commission – Ursula von der Leyen and the President of France – Emmanuel Macron have arrived in Beijing to meet the President of China – Xi Jinping, pressing China on taking further steps to halt the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ursula and Macron will be welcomed by Xi tomorrow, i.e., Thursday, April 6, 2023. The 3-day joint trip is the latest in a noticeable push from European leaders to engage with China. Prior to this, the Chancellor of Germany – Olaf Scholz and the Prime Minister of Span – Pedro Sánchez have also visited China recently.
Taking it to twitter, Ursula tweeted,
I had a phone call with President @ZelenskyyUa ahead of my visit to China.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) April 4, 2023
Ukraine will be an important topic of my meetings with President Xi and Premier Li.
The EU wants a just peace that respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Macron is expected to ask China to not to supply weapons to Russia. As of now, China has refrained from supplying weapons to Russia, despite several requests from Russia.
Ursula and Macron will also be focussing on enhancing the trade relationship between the European Union (E.U.) and China, its biggest trading partner. Days before her arrival, Ursula gave a strongly-worded speech criticising Xi for maintaining his friendship with the President of Russia – Vladimir Putin. In a reference to China’s 12-point peace plan, she stressed that any plan consolidating Russian annexations was “simply not viable”.
The trip comes less than a month after Xi made a 3-day State visit to Russia, where he met Putin and they affirmed their countries’ alignment on a host of issues. Xi has not spoken with the President of Ukraine – Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Macron is accompanied by CEOs of Airbus, BNP Paribas and L’Oreal, with hopes of finalizing or even signing new deals during the trip. Ursula is not travelling with a business delegation but will meet the E.U. Chamber of Commerce in China. China’s Foreign Ministry has called Macron’s visit an opportunity to plan and chart a course for bilateral relations with France and said there would be an exchange of views on major international issues.
Some analysts believe that Xi could try to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Europe, the latter of which has traditionally adopted a less hawkish approach to bilateral relations.
