Xi-Macron reunion and the next

The leaders of the two world’s great economies, Chinese President XI Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron, had talked via telephone on Tuesday. During the conversation, the Chinese President told his French Counterpart that the Chinese side itself has always called for reconciliation and negotiations and supported European countries to take the security situation in Europe into their own hands. According to Xi, China is also wary of the formation of bloc confrontation, as this poses an increasingly serious and long-term threat to global security. The French President was of the view that France and China adhere to a consensus on many issues related to the situation in Ukraine. Macon assured Xi that France and the EU will continue to pursue an independent strategy and will neither support bloc confrontation nor take part in bloc politics.
France and China are two great economies, global markets, and veto powers in the world forum. Currently, being the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, France owes great importance to the Chinese government, particularly in the backdrop of the current EU-China tense relations as well as the US-China global competition. Chinese leaders perceive that the United States has the utmost influence on the EU’s domestic, trade, and foreign policies and American motivation has always led to the deterioration of Chinese relations with Brussels in the past. Therefore, Chinese leaders had been urging European countries to demonstrate greater autonomy in their bilateral policies with Beijing instead of being a part of the bloc confrontation.
Although young Macron had agreed with Xi to pursue an independent strategy, it was not an easy task for him to completely ignore the anti-China prophecies of Biden’s aides who had been frightening Macron and other western leaders from alleged Russian resurgence and dominant role in the region. Recently, the world has witnessed how Macron took a U-turn on his legacy regarding Russia’s greater role in the European Community after Russia’s special operation against Ukraine. Although both leaders had made boundless promises, the Xi-Macron reunion is less likely to stay for a long time.