French President Emmanuel Macron is planning to visit China in the new year, as speculation swirls about Beijing’s potential role in ending the Ukraine war.
According to several sources familiar with the matter, Macron’s trusted diplomatic adviser Emmanuel Bonne travelled this week to Beijing with a team of aides to lay the groundwork for a trip by the French leader.
Bonne’s visit was timed to coincide with Macron’s return this week from Poland. There, Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk discussed plans to put troops from European Union member states in Ukraine to monitor a future ceasefire, according to media reports.
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The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that during talks in Paris earlier this month, Macron, US president-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed leveraging China’s influence over Russia as part of a ceasefire deal.
“Trump also pushed the Europeans to do more to get the Chinese to press the Kremlin to end the conflict, according to a person briefed on the meeting. They discussed using tariffs on China as a bargaining chip, if Beijing doesn’t agree to do so,” it also reported.
European leaders have long sought China’s help to end the war, which began with a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, they have been largely disappointed by its response.
While Beijing proclaims itself neutral in the conflict, concerns in the West have spiked about the economic lifeline its free-flowing trade with Moscow has provided the Russian military.
In addition, EU officials have been disturbed by what they describe as an “echoing of Kremlin talking points” during meetings with Chinese interlocutors.
During a recent event in Brussels organised by the Chinese mission to the EU, European guests were enraged when several mainland academics blamed “Nato’s eastward expansion” for causing the war in Ukraine.
Anxieties have intensified in recent weeks after European intelligence services shared evidence of a drone factory in China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region producing military-grade craft for Russian forces.
The issue is expected to be raised at several gatherings of ministers and leaders next week.
Meanwhile, having vowed to quickly end the war, Trump has voiced his own view that Beijing should be involved in any discussions. In a post on his Truth Social network on Sunday, he said Kyiv “would like to make a deal” to end its war with Russia.
“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed,” wrote Trump.
“I know Vladimir [Putin] well,” he added, referring to the Russian leader. “This is his time to act. China can help. The world is waiting!”
For its part, China has long called for an immediate ceasefire, even if Western countries have been disappointed by its failure to rein in Putin, who enjoys close ties with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
While the EU has urged parties to follow Zelensky’s own peace plan, Beijing has coordinated with Brazil and other developing countries to launch a “friends-for-peace” group aimed at ending the conflict.
The group’s first meeting, held at the United Nations General Assembly in September, was attended by ministers from countries including Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and Zambia.
Subsequently, EU members Hungary and Slovakia have stated an interest in taking part in the forum. Their leaders, Viktor Orban and Robert Fico, have also been in contact with Putin, bucking the trend among EU chiefs.
Macron’s manoeuvring on the global stage, meanwhile, comes amid severe pressure domestically. The French government collapsed this month after far-left and far-right parties secured a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
These parties have called for Macron to resign, but the centrist has vowed to fight on and is expected to name a new prime minister imminently.
And amid China’s strained ties with the EU, Macron has regularly engaged with Xi.
At the height of a spat over EU tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, Xi in May visited France and was afforded red-carpet treatment by his French counterpart.
This was despite Macron’s government being the most prominent backer of the European Commission’s anti-subsidy investigation into mainland EVs.
A year earlier, Macron enjoyed a lavish state visit to China. During a flight between Beijing and Guangzhou, he stoked controversy when he told journalists that Europe should avoid getting “caught up in crises that are not ours”, referring to Taiwan.
More from South China Morning Post:
- China-Russia ties: Xi Jinping tells Medvedev Beijing seeks political solution in Ukraine
- China busy bolstering other trade ties amid tensions with US, EU
- China’s Wolf Warrior Lu Shaye heads home from France in shadow of controversy
- EU to sanction China entities for role in supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine
- Russia may be ready to use new lethal missile against Ukraine again in ‘coming days’: US
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