French PresidentEmmanuel Macronbegan the final day of his state go to toChinaby shocking fellow joggers on the Jincheng Lake Park within the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu on Friday.
Videos circulating on Chinese social media confirmed the French president on the in style park, earlier than becoming a member of PresidentXi Jinpingat the Dujiangyan dam, state media reported. The dam has managed water flows round Chengdu because the third century B.C.
Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People inBeijingthe place the 2 leaders held talks, Xi and First Lady Peng Liyuan confirmed Macron and his spouse Brigitte across the centuries-old dam, a World Heritage Site set in opposition to the mountainous panorama of Sichuan province.
Read extraMacron meets Xi in Beijing as he urges China to push for Ukraine ceasefire
The French president mentioned he was “very touched” by the gesture, a departure from official protocol. He had beforehand hosted Xi within the Pyrenees the place he had hung out as a toddler in May 2024.
Macron mentioned the journey was an indication of mutual belief and a want to “act together” at a time when worldwide tensions are rising and commerce imbalances are widening to China’s benefit.
The two presidential {couples} will half methods after a lunch, with the Macrons persevering with the journey independently.
Panda and ping-pong diplomacy
Macron can also be assembly with college students in Chengdu, China’s fourth-largest metropolis with 21 million inhabitants that’s thought-about some of the culturally and socially open in China.
Brigitte Macron, in the meantime, heads to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the place two 17-year-old pandas, loaned to France in 2012 as a part of China’s “panda diplomacy”, have simply returned.
Read moreTwo pandas bid France ‘adieu’ for early retirement in China
There, she’s going to meet Yuan Meng, the primary giantpandaborn in France in 2017, to whom she is “Godmother”, and who arrived in China in 2023.
The forests of Sichuan are house to quite a few protected species, from snow leopards to massive pandas.
Through loans to zoos, China has made these bears emblematic ambassadors of its friendship with peoples from Japan to Germany.
Cubs born overseas are despatched just a few years later to Chengdu to take part in breeding and rehabilitation programmes within the wild.
For his half, the French president will meet desk tennis brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun, stars of the 2024 Paris Olympics, who’re in China for the Mixed Team Table Tennis World Cup.
Trade agreements
On Thursday in Beijing, the French president urged his Chinese counterpart to work in the direction of ending the warfare inUkraineand to appropriate the commerce imbalances with France and Europe.
China usually calls forpeace talksand respect for the territorial integrity of all international locations, however has by no means condemned Russia for its 2022 invasion.
Western governments accuse Beijing of offering Russia with essential financial assist for its warfare effort, notably by supplying it with army parts for itsdefenceindustry, one thing Beijing denies.
Macron’s name for elevated Chineseinvestmentin France seems to have been heeded.
Themeeting between the 2 leaders in Beijing on Thursday produced12 cooperation agreements overlaying matters comparable to inhabitants ageing,nuclear energyand panda conservation. No financial quantities have been disclosed, although Macron is being accompanied for his fourth state go to to China by the heads of a few of France’s most distinguished firms.
The Chinese chief was not anticipated to approve a long-anticipated, 500-jet Airbus order, as that might weaken Beijing’s leverage throughout commerce talks with the US, which is urgent for brand new Boeing buy commitments.
Xi additionally introduced that China will present $100 million to assist Gazas ongoing humanitarian disaster and to assist restoration and reconstruction.
He known as for constructing higher political belief with France by exhibiting mutual assist whereas demonstrating every sides independence.
No matter how the exterior atmosphere modifications, either side as main powers ought to all the time reveal independence and strategic imaginative and prescient, present mutual understanding and mutual assist for one another on core issues and main vital points, he mentioned.
China and France ought to reveal their sense of accountability, increase excessive the banner of multilateralism and firmly stand on the precise facet of historical past, he added.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
Originally revealed on France24