Chinese President Xi Jinping called on his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to provide a "fairer, just and nondiscriminatory business environment" for Chinese companies in France, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, amid U.S.-led moves to bar Chinese firms on security grounds.
In a meeting held on the sidelines of the summit of the Group of 20 major economies on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, Xi said China and France should "adhere to the spirit of independence, openness and cooperation" and asked Paris to push the European Union to continue to pursue an independent policy toward China.
Xi said China and France should expand two-way trade and investment and maintain the stability and smooth functioning of global industrial and supply chains as well as tap the potential for cooperation in such areas as green energy and technological innovation, according to state-run China Central Television.
In the first face-to-face meeting of the Chinese and French leaders, Macron was quoted by CCTV as saying that France upholds independent diplomacy and opposes confrontation between camps and hopes to deepen cooperation with China in the fields of aviation and civilian nuclear energy.
On the Ukrainian crisis, Xi said the international community should create conditions for a ceasefire and peace talks and that China will continue to play a constructive role in its own way, according to the report.
China has refrained from condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and is not joining Western nations in imposing sanctions on Moscow.
