A meeting at the People’s Palace, the heart of power in China. French President Emmanuel Macron and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will try on Thursday April 6 in Beijing to bring Europe’s voice to the conflict in Ukraine, during an interview with Xi Jinping, a close ally of Vladimir Putin. . Wednesday during a speech, the French president estimated that Beijing could play a “major role” For “find a way of peace” in Ukraine. Follow our live.
Multiple meetings Thursday. Emmanuel Macron, who will be received in the morning by Prime Minister Li Qiang, then the President of the National Assembly Zhao Leji, will have a one-on-one meeting with Xi Jinping in the afternoon, before statements to the press, a trilateral interview including Ursula von der Leyen and finally a State dinner.
International pressure on Ukraine. In recent weeks, international pressure has mounted a notch on China, to encourage it to get involved for peace in Ukraine. Because, if Beijing says it is officially neutral, Xi Jinping has never condemned the Russian invasion or even spoken on the phone with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodomyr Zelensky. Conversely, he recently went to Moscow to reaffirm his alliance with the Russian president, looking like an anti-Western front.
Tensions around Taiwan. This visit comes at a new moment of tension around the question of Taiwan, with the meeting, in the United States, between the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, and the speaker of the American House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy. Beijing, which considers the island to be one of its provinces, promised a “determined” response on Thursday. “I don’t have the feeling that there is a desire to overreact” Chinese side, relativized Emmanuel Macron, questioned by journalists on this subject.