After the Shangri-La Dialogue and the end of the confrontation between China and the United States in and out of the field, French President Emmanuel Macron's foreign affairs adviser Bona called as soon as possible, and Director Wang Yi was called at the request. According to the circular issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the dialogue between the two revolves around Sino-French relations, global North-South cooperation and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which are all topics of common concern and high concern between China and France.
【Screenshot of the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs】
For this call, we should pay attention to one point, that is, Director Wang Yi has a statement on this, which is very meaningful. He said this: President Macron's recent important statement on the international multilateral platform reflects the independent diplomatic tradition of France, and during this period, European countries have also been more active in exchanges and communication with China, which China appreciates.
The international multilateral platform mentioned by Director Wang Yi, although not clearly pointed to, may refer to the G7 summit that ended in Hiroshima, Japan, not long ago, but it may also be the global security forum that Macron personally went to the Czech Republic a few days ago.
During the G7 summit, Macron frankly said that the G7 should not become an anti-China organization, and it is necessary to send a signal of cooperation to China; At the Global Security Forum, he also stressed that Europe needs to defend its own security through its own capabilities. At these two meetings, Macron's statement, although the direction is different, one is diplomacy and the other is defense, but the underlying logic is the same, that is, France's domestic and foreign strategy is based on independence and self-determination.
[Director Wang Yi spoke with Bona at the appointment]
Security is especially worth mentioning. Because the current defense of Europe mainly depends on the old military alliance structure of NATO, and the dominant player is the United States, thousands of miles away. On the whole, the United States has a lot of say in NATO's positioning and strategic tendencies. Macron has repeatedly proposed that Europe should have strategic autonomy, apparently hoping to get rid of the influence of the United States and establish a relatively equal US-European relationship.
Of course, France's pursuit of independence does not mean that Macron's strategic goal is completely beneficial to China. After all, France also has its own interests and cannot completely overlap with China. However, diplomacy between major countries pays attention to seeking common ground while reserving differences, and according to the recent interaction between China and France, there are not many things that the two countries have in common. This is why, in recent years, although the European side has been uncertain on its China policy, France has still achieved many positive results in diplomacy with China.
[Macron and Boehner]
And one of them, which is likely to be mentioned by Director Wang Yi, is that European countries are more willing to carry out dialogue and contact with China. After all, France is one of the most influential countries in the EU, and it is itself a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council on an equal footing with China and the United States, and every word and deed at the diplomatic level has a subtle impact on the rest of the EU.
Then, combined with the scene at the incense meeting, the defense heads of European countries lined up to meet with the Chinese defense minister, we cannot rule out the possibility that the willingness of Europe to communicate with China is high, and France may have exerted a lot of influence later. After all, "China appreciates this", the weight of this sentence, not low at all, is addressed both to France and to Europe. By maintaining the momentum of positive bilateral and multilateral exchanges and dialogues, it will be difficult for the fundamentals of China-EU relations to be shaken by unexpected risks.
In addition, while France is leading Europe to engage with China, it is also persuading the United States to engage in less confrontation. As soon as the new French ambassador to the United States, Luo Liang, took up his new post in the United States, he openly and frankly told the US media that confrontation with China on the Taiwan Strait issue is not in the best interests of the Western world. It is worth mentioning that Luo Liang was the French ambassador to China before becoming ambassador to the United States. This is very interesting, it cannot be ruled out that France wants to coordinate the positioning of France and even Europe between China and the United States in a timely manner through this personnel arrangement.
[Macron's visit to China, not in vain]
To get back to business, at the end of the call, Director Wang Yi and Bona also talked about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Speaking of which, I would like to add that after Macron returned home from his visit to China in April, he immediately instructed to coordinate with the Chinese side as soon as possible and strive to establish a dialogue framework conducive to Russian-Ukrainian peace talks this year.
Therefore, we can also see that on the Ukraine issue, China and France have coordinated their respective positions and agreed to accumulate and create conditions for the opening of the political settlement process. This statement is very informative, because looking back at our diplomatic interactions with the parties to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the past, most of them were mainly based on exchanging views and clarifying positions, except here in France, the two sides began to coordinate their positions, which may mean that China and France are preparing to jointly set the tone for the Ukrainian crisis.
[China expressed appreciation for Macron's statement and the more positive attitude of the European side]
Some time ago, there was also information that Macron proposed to hold a peace summit in Paris, inviting Ukraine to participate. Soon some foreign media thought that when Director Wang Yi and Bona docked the framework of the peace talks, when asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for verification, our spokesman did not admit or deny it, but only said that there was no information that could be provided. On the contrary, this shows that the peace summit is likely to be true, and China is expected to have received an invitation, but whether it will attend or not may need further coordination.
In addition, I believe everyone still has the impression that at the G7 meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took a special plane arranged by the French government and went to Hiroshima through China's airspace with the permission of the Chinese side. This shows that on the topic of the Ukraine crisis, China and France have always maintained a considerable degree and frequency of exchanges. Zelensky's personal participation in the G7 may seem unexpected, but it is actually the result of long-term joint efforts between China and France behind the scenes. Now the French side has taken the initiative to call and coordinate its position with China, which once again shows that France attaches great importance to China's role in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. How to mediate between Russia and Ukraine is implicitly becoming a new field of Sino-French cooperation and China-EU cooperation.