China and France, as major countries, have a common responsibility to lead the international community to join hands to address major global challenges in the face of many new changes taking place in the international situation, the president said on Tuesday Chinese Xi Jinping.
Xi made the remarks during his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Sino-French relations have unique strategic value and global significance, as the two nations are large, independent, mature and responsible countries, Xi noted. In May this year, he and Mr. Macron presented their vision for the next 60 years of Sino-French relations, and spoke out on major global challenges and the most sensitive issues, which had a broad positive impact on the international scene, he added.
He urged the two countries to deepen strategic communication, strengthen mutual support, maintain stable and positive development momentum in bilateral relations, and make greater contributions to the development of China-EU relations and peace and to stability in the world.
Xi reaffirmed that China is willing to continue to strengthen high-level exchanges with France, and deepen exchanges and cooperation in areas such as culture, education, youth and local governments. in order to promote human exchanges between the two countries.
The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) launched a new round of reform and opening-up in China, creating new opportunities for Sino-French cooperation and expanding the scope of their practical cooperation, said he asserted.
Xi expressed hope that the two sides would make good use of mechanisms such as the High-level Economic and Financial Dialogue and the Joint Committee on Economic and Trade Cooperation to make full use of the potential of their cooperation, strengthen complementarity. of their respective strengths, properly resolve their differences, and achieve mutual benefits and win-win results.
For his part, Mr. Macron referred to Mr. Xi’s successful visit to France last May, during which the two heads of state jointly celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and the China.
Noting that today’s world is full of instability and uncertainties, Macron said France is ready to work with China to implement the consensus of views reached by the two heads of state, continue to strengthen their high-level exchanges, improve exchanges between the two peoples, perpetuate their traditional friendship and forge a new type of relations between States.
France upholds the concept of strategic autonomy, and is willing to dialogue and cooperate with China in a spirit of mutual respect, appropriately manage their economic and trade disputes, and maintain stable and healthy development of their economic relations and bilateral trade relations, and to strengthen their cooperation in the areas of climate change, global AI governance and other sectors, he said.
The two sides exchanged views on the Ukrainian crisis. Xi noted that China’s position on the crisis has always been consistent, and the Chinese side hopes the conflict will subside.
China does not want any spillover or escalation of the conflict, and will continue to play a constructive role in its own way to achieve a ceasefire and an end to the conflict, he added.
