00:00Well, for more, we can speak to Laure Palais. She joins us from Washington.
00:04She's a senior partner at Masqueray and an expert on China's relations with the United States and Europe.
00:10Hello to you, Laure. Thank you for speaking to Paris Direct.
00:14Was this sort of an impossible task for Emmanuel Macron, this visit?
00:18Why did he not get more out of Xi Jinping?
00:23Well, this three-day state visit focused, like you said, on trade and diplomacy.
00:28And as you know, France is Europe's second largest economy.
00:32So I wouldn't say it was not quite a big achievement.
00:36I mean, Chinese leader Xi Jinping accompanied French president to Chengdu today, highlighting Beijing's focus on Paris and its ties to the EU.
00:46Now it's true that France account has a deficit of 47 billion euros with China, calling for half of our trade deficit.
00:55So this is really unbalanced, and there's a strong effort to be made there.
01:01Now investors, as we speak, are watching closely today, as today will end, with major or not commercial deals,
01:10since, like you said, the Beijing meeting today resulted only in 12 cooperation agreements.
01:16In balance, does Macron have any leverage over China's Xi Jinping?
01:24Well, he has, there are two key elements in his speech.
01:33You know, he mentioned cooperation between power is cracking, and also he's, well, no, there are balances in trade.
01:42And it's, I mean, sorry, the main issue is that there's no easing condition on cognac or pork because of negotiating with Brussels over China's made electronic vehicles.
01:58So we are, I mean, France has leveraged, but it's also playing in this, you know, bigger field within Europe, which has other stakes, higher stakes.
02:08And we are seeing this also, you know, between, in a trade war between the US and China, where, for instance, there was no major concessions made by Xi Jinping on ordering 500 jet Airbus,
02:24because that would downsize, decrease the leverage that Xi Jinping has over Trump.
02:33Yeah, and in regards to the war in Ukraine, how would you characterize China's support for Russia? Is there any nuance?
02:44I mean, China, you know, is still on this line. There's no, it hasn't changed much.
02:52So, and I heard the, sorry, the, the, the Ukraine ambassador last night in Washington on radio, which was very worried about the no progress, you know, over this, the state visit and worried that Ukraine would, would, would lose sovereignty.
03:09So China's position has not changed much after, after this, this visit. No.
03:17All right, Lor, thank you very much. Lor Pella is joining us.
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