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GUANGZHOU, China — France and China have reached an agreement to work together to deepen military cooperation, as President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to China ends with a joint call for peace in Ukraine.
According to a joint statement by the governments of Macron and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s southern theater – mainly responsible for the South China Sea – will “deepen dialogue” with the Asia-Pacific Command of French forces. . The pledge comes amid rising tensions between US and Chinese forces in the Pacific.
An Elysée official later downplayed the scale of future cooperation between the Chinese and French forces, saying it would be limited to promoting “respect for the law of the sea”.
“We have a navy that patrols the region, the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea… That means ships passing, which need to respect the law of the sea, respect borders as well as freedom of navigation. That’s what we mean,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Regarding Ukraine, the statement said: “The two sides support all efforts to restore peace in Ukraine on the basis of international law and the goals and principles of the United Nations Charter.”
It called on Russia to ensure the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities. The statement said China and France “oppose armed attacks on nuclear power plants and other peaceful nuclear facilities” and support the IAEA in ensuring “the safety and security of the Zaporizhia plant”.
They also called on “all parties to the conflict” to “strictly observe international humanitarian law”.
While such calls are very much in line with China’s policy, the fact that Xi agreed to a joint statement unilaterally with France on these points illustrates his concerns about the course of the Russian war. However, the statement did not mention Russia by name, underscoring Beijing’s refusal to publicly criticize its most powerful diplomatic ally in the world.
In the southern city of Guangzhou, where Macron spent his last three-day visit to China, he met a large group of students from a university. He asked the students not to let ideologies get in the way of pursuing critical thinking in China.
Macron then moved on to a tea meeting with Xi, in what Chinese media described as an “informal” meeting. It was the first time since the pandemic that Xi had accompanied a visiting leader outside the capital, Beijing.
Stewart Lau reported from Brussels, Clea Colcott reported from Guangzhou.
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