French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday called for a “rebalancing” of trade relations between Europe and China on the eve of the German leader visiting Beijing.
In a video call between the two European leaders, they also discussed the impact of the war in Ukraine on European security, officials in Macron’s office said.
Scholz travels to China this weekend for a delicate three-day trip at a time when the West is sharpening its tone toward Beijing, both about its trade practices and its closeness to Moscow.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The EU has accused China of inundating Europe with subsidized goods sold at below-market prices.
The European Commission on Tuesday opened a probe into Chinese wind turbine suppliers, following investigations into state aid for solar panels, electric vehicles and trains.
In their call, Macron and Scholz also underlined the need to “spur European competitivity,” notably by deepening pan-European capital markets, a project that would require harmonizing financial rules across the bloc, but which has been held up by disagreements between Paris and Berlin.
The two also reaffirmed their “unwavering and long-term support for Ukraine” and “discussed European initiatives to provide military support for Ukraine,” Macron’s office said.
The French president has been expected to visit Ukraine for several weeks, but he has said he would only make the trip when he has something concrete to bring.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS