What China’s Xi and France’s Macron discussed in Beijing

China said it was open to importing more goods from France in exchange for a “fair, conducive environment” for Chinese businesses in the European nation, President Xi Jinping told his counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Thursday as they met in Beijing.

The French president kicked off a 3-day visit to China on Wednesday — his first trip to Beijing in more than two years — on the heels of growing frictions over a range of topics including trade imbalance and the long-running war in Ukraine.

In a separate readout from the French government, Macron told Xi that the two countries must work together based on “a balanced relationship,” while urging Beijing to help end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Macron said he welcomed Beijing’s “renewed willingness to facilitate access to the Chinese market for French products, particularly agricultural goods,” including wine, pork, poultry and beef, according to a Google translation of the statement in French.

The countries will work toward establishing a framework that allows for increased Chinese direct investment in Europe, particularly in France, where it will create more jobs, Macron said.

The two leaders also signed several deals covering energy, agriculture, education and environment, according to the official readout from Chinese state media, which did not elaborate on the agreed terms.

Xi also called for deepening bilateral collaboration in aerospace, nuclear energy, digital economy, biopharmaceutical and artificial intelligence sectors.

The readout reflects Paris’ “ambition to be a stabilizing force in EU-China relations,” said Daniel Balazs, a research fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, noting that the EU’s broader aim would be to preserve constructive ties with China despite recurring frictions.

“Good ties with France also ensure that China has friends within the EU when Brussels makes economic and political decisions that impact Chinese interests,” said Balazs.

Tensions between Beijing and Paris escalated last year when Macron backed the European Union’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, prompting Beijing to retaliate with minimum price requirements on French cognac makers.

Macron is expected to lobby the Chinese leader to not impose similar measures on French pork and dairy products, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, as Beijing has weighed those duties in response to the levies on EVs.

Macron had also pushed Brussels to respond with its toughest trade measures on China after Beijing restricted its rare earth exports that had triggered worries of supply shortages at European carmakers.

The bilateral meeting comes at a time when Beijing is locked in a diplomatic spat with Japan over Prime Minister Sanae…