On the morning of November 19, 2024 local time, President Xi Jinping met with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Xi Jinping said that both China and France are independent, mature and responsible major countries. The bilateral relationship is of unique strategic significance and global influence. In May this year, they outlined a vision for China-France relations in the next 60 years and spoke with one voice on global challenges and hotspot issues, which has had a wide and positive impact on the international community. The current international situation is undergoing many new changes. Leading the international community in addressing global challenges with unity is a shared responsibility of major countries like China and France. The two sides should deepen strategic communication, strengthen mutual support, maintain the momentum of the steady and positive development of China-France relations, and make greater contributions to the sound development of China-EU relations and world peace and stability.
Xi Jinping stressed that China is ready to continue to strengthen high-level exchanges with France, continuously deepen cultural, educational, sub-national and youth exchanges and cooperation, and promote closer ties between the two peoples. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee has launched a new round of reform and opening-up in China, which will provide new opportunities for China-France cooperation and broad prospects for practical cooperation between the two sides. Xi Jinping expressed the hope that the two sides will make good use of mechanisms such as the High-Level Economic and Financial Dialogue and the Joint Committee on Economy and Trade to tap the potential of cooperation, complement each other's strengths, properly resolve differences and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
Emmanuel Macron said that President Xi Jinping paid a successful visit to France in May this year. They jointly celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and China. The world today is full of instabilities and uncertainties. France is willing to work with China to earnestly implement the common understandings reached between the two heads of state, continue to strengthen high-level exchanges, enhance people-to-people exchanges, continue traditional friendship and forge a new type of state-to-state relations. France adheres to strategic independence and is willing to engage in dialogue and cooperation with China in the spirit of mutual respect, properly handle economic and trade disputes, maintain the sound and steady development of bilateral economic and trade relations, and strengthen cooperation in climate change, global governance of artificial intelligence and other fields.
The two sides had an exchange of views on the Ukraine crisis. Xi Jinping pointed out that China's position on the Ukraine crisis is consistent. China hopes for a de-escalation of the conflict, doesn't want to see the spillover of the crisis or the escalation of the war, and will continue to play a constructive role in its own way to promote a ceasefire and an end to the war.
Cai Qi and Wang Yi, among others, attended the meeting.