Paris (CNSNews.com) – French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed plans to travel in early April to China where he hopes again to push for a resolution to the war in Ukraine.
He told reporters that he plans to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the war and efforts to end it, and will urge Xi “to put pressure on Russia to stop the aggression and to build peace.”
Macron said it is his view that the time for “reconnection” with China has arrived, following a period of cooling resulting both from the COVID-19 pandemic and diplomatic tensions.
“China must today help us to put pressure on Russia, of course, so that it never uses either chemicals or nuclear weapons and that it stops this aggression prior to a negotiation,” Macron said. He added that France is urging Beijing “not to deliver any weapons to Russia.”
Macron said that peace would only be possible if Russia “not only stops its aggression against Ukraine but also withdraws its troops and respects territorial sovereignty and the Ukrainian people.”
Those comments stand in contrast to a 12-point position paper released by China late last week, which calls for a ceasefire and a return to talks, but does not condemn the invasion and is silent on Russia’s withdrawing its armed forces from Ukrainian territory.
Plans for the trip were apparently first discussed when Macron met with the Chinese Communist Party’s top foreign affairs official, Wang Yi, in Paris earlier this month. Wang also held talks with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna about France-China relations and China’s stance on the Ukraine-Russia war.
From the time Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Macron tried to position himself as a key mediator between the two countries, but he drew criticism at home, where lawmakers from across the political spectrum said his policy was too cautious and difficult to discern.
His arguments that Russia should not be humiliated also brought some criticism, in France and abroad.
After the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia last November, Macron told reporters that he would like to see Beijing play “a greater role of mediation” in the war in Ukraine.
“There is a space for convergence, including with major emerging countries like China and India, to push Russia to de-escalate,” he told reporters at the time.
In a column in the Le Monde daily in December, political researchers Adam Baczko and Gilles Dorronsoro wrote that the French president in response to the Russia-Ukraine war “chose a flawed position by trying to reconcile two contradictory approaches.”
“On one hand, Macron calls for dialogue with Moscow and negotiation, in line with the tradition of European balance of power, attached to counterbalancing American influence on the continent,” they wrote.
“On the other hand, as a member of NATO and the European Union, France contributes, modestly, to the collective effort and supports Ukraine both diplomatically and militarily.”
The two concluded that, rather than putting France in a favorable position, “this ambiguity has so far only had drawbacks.”
“Far from consolidating [France’s] position as a leading military power in the E.U., current policy signals its eventual marginalization,” they argued. “The idea that France can be a mediator in this conflict is a pure illusion.”
Relations between Beijing and France, and the wider European Union, were strained in 2021 when the E.U. imposed sanctions to protest the Chinese authorities’ crackdown on the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang. In retaliation, China sanctioned a number of European lawmakers.
Bilateral exchanges were also mostly suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, although Macron and Xi did meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.
Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France.