Holds talks with French President Emmanuel Macron

President Xi Jinping holds talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at Elysee Palace, in Paris, France, May 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

Paris, May 6th, Xinhua News Agency(Reporter Ni Siyi、Tian Fan)President Xi Jinping holds talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at Elysee Palace, in Paris, France, May 6, 2024.

President Xi Jinping pointed out that it is a great pleasure to visit France for the third time on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. The precious 60 year history of Sino French relations will enable us to better contemplate how to embark on the next 60 years. In the current century long changing world situation, both sides should adhere to the original intention of establishing diplomatic relations of independence, mutual understanding, foresight, and mutual benefit, and inject new era connotations into it, creating a new era of mutual trust, stability, integrity, innovation, and responsibility between China and France. Both sides should adhere to independence and autonomy, and jointly prevent the "new cold war" or camp confrontation; We must adhere to mutual understanding and promote harmonious coexistence in a colorful world together; We must adhere to a forward-looking approach and work together to promote an equal and orderly multipolarity in the world; We must adhere to mutual benefit and win-win, and jointly oppose decoupling and chain breaking.

President Xi Jinping emphasizes that China is willing to maintain strategic communication with France, respect each other's core interests, and consolidate the strategic stability of bilateral relations. Explore the vast potential of mutually beneficial cooperation and promote upward balance in bilateral trade. China is willing to import more high-quality French products, promote the "from French farms to Chinese dining tables" mechanism to achieve more practical results, and hope that France will export more high-tech and high value-added products to China. Both sides need to strengthen the docking of development strategies, deepen cooperation in traditional advantageous fields such as aerospace, strengthen cooperation in nuclear energy, innovation, and finance, and expand cooperation in emerging fields such as green energy, intelligent manufacturing, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence. China has fully liberalized its manufacturing industry access and will accelerate the opening up of service industry markets such as telecommunications and healthcare. We welcome more French enterprises to invest in China and also hope that the French side can provide a good business environment and stable development expectations for Chinese enterprises to invest and cooperate in France.

President Xi Jinping emphasizes that both China and France are cultural powers, and both sides should accelerate cultural exchanges and continue to organize various activities of the Sino French Cultural Tourism Year. They should actively promote cooperation in the joint protection and restoration of cultural relics and the establishment of world heritage sites. The Chinese side welcomes more French friends to visit China and extends the visa free policy for citizens from 12 countries, including France, to the end of 2025, promoting the number of French international students studying in China to exceed 10000 in the next three years and doubling the scale of European youth exchanges in China. China supports France in hosting the Paris Olympics and will send a high-level delegation to France to participate. China is willing to deepen cooperation with France in areas such as climate change and biodiversity, support France in hosting the United Nations Ocean Conference, and encourage pairing of relevant national parks and nature reserves between the two countries. China is also willing to strengthen dialogue and communication with France in areas such as artificial intelligence governance and international financial system reform.

President Xi Jinping holds talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at Elysee Palace, in Paris, France, May 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

President Emmanuel Macron stated that China and France will jointly celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year. France China relations are friendly and cooperation is fruitful, involving not only cutting-edge technologies but also global issues such as climate change and marine diversity. During the visit of President Xi Jinping, both parties signed multiple cooperation agreements, once again highlighting the potential and prospects of cooperation between France and China. Currently, the world is facing many urgent challenges, and the relationship between France and China is at a critical moment of continuity. The relationship between France and China has a profound foundation, with mutual respect, a long-term perspective, and strengthened cooperation. It will play an important and positive role in solving global challenges and avoiding group confrontation. The French side hopes to further strengthen bilateral economic relations and multilateral communication and cooperation with China, and promote more achievements in the strategic partnership between France and China. The French side hopes to export more agricultural products to China while maintaining market openness and avoiding discriminatory policies against Chinese enterprises. We welcome more Chinese enterprises, including high-tech enterprises, to invest and cooperate in France. The French side is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in areas such as aerospace and civil nuclear energy, and jointly organize this year's France China Cultural Tourism Year activities. We welcome the Chinese delegation to attend the Paris Olympics. The French side is willing to closely communicate and cooperate with China on global issues such as climate change, biodiversity conservation, and artificial intelligence, and jointly uphold multilateralism, the purposes of the United Nations Charter, and international law.

Both sides also exchanged in-depth views on international and regional issues of common concern, such as the Ukraine crisis and the Palestinian Israeli conflict. President Xi Jinping points out that the world today is not peaceful. China and France, both permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, should speak out for the peaceful resolution of hot issues and contribute to the construction of a world of lasting peace and universal security. China is willing to work with France to take the Paris Olympics as an opportunity to propose a global ceasefire and end to war during the Games.

Both sides have issued four joint statements on the situation in the Middle East, artificial intelligence and global governance, biodiversity and oceans, and agricultural exchanges and cooperation. They have signed nearly 20 bilateral cooperation documents in areas such as green development, aviation, agriculture and food, commerce, and humanities.

After the meeting, President Xi Jinping and President Emmanuel Macron jointly met with reporters.

Cai Qi, Wang Yi, and others attended the above event.