Photo: AFP/Hans Lucas/Xose Bouzas
Eurasia
06/05/2024 16:17
China regards Europe as an important dimension in its major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and an important partner on its path toward Chinese modernization, he said at the meeting, according to Xinhua.
Expressing his delight in meeting with Macron and von der Leyen again, Xi noted that France is the first stop of his overseas visit this year, and that the trilateral meeting amplifies the Europe-wide significance of this visit.
“China always approaches its relations with the European Union from a strategic and long-term perspective, ”
Xi said.
It is hoped that China-France and China-EU relations would reinforce each other and thrive together, he added. As the world enters a new period of turbulence and transformation, China and the EU, as two major forces in the world, should continue to see each other as partners, stay committed to dialogue and cooperation, deepen strategic communication, enhance strategic mutual trust, build strategic consensus, carry out strategic coordination, work for steady and sound growth of China-EU ties, and continue making new contributions to world peace and development, Xi said.
Emmanuel Macron stressed the need for more balanced commercial ties between Europe and China, the Financial Times reports.
“The international situation very clearly means we need to have a European-Chinese dialogue more than ever,”
Macron told Xi in opening remarks at the Élysée Palace, the newspaper adds. “Europe is at a turning point of its history, which requires us to face and overcome structural difficulties,” the French President added.
Later on Monday afternoon, Xi and Macron started bilateral talks at the Palace.
According to the Financial Times, during the state visit, in which the Chinese leader is expected to dine with Macron on Monday evening at the Élysée Palace before visiting the Pyrenees on Tuesday.
Balázs Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister's Political Director spoke about the relationship between the European Union and China, Brussels' misguided strategy, the decline in European competitiveness and growth, and the golden age of Hungarian-Chinese relations at the 10th High-level Symposium of Think Tanks of China and Central and Eastern European Countries in Beijing on Friday.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Hungary and China. In May, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited our country, followed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's visit to Beijing in July for talks as part of the "peace mission".