From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 1 hour ago, updated 1 hour ago
Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Emmanuel Macron visit the garden of the governor’s residence in Guangdong, China, April 7, 2023. JACQUES WITT / AFP
The French president expressed concern about the “announced military cooperation” between Russia and North Korea in a telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “deep concern” to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday, November 20, about the “announced military cooperation” between Russia and North Korea, the Élysée reported, following a phone call between the two leaders.
“We hope that China will realize to what extent this is a problematic development for France and the entire European Union, which would of course lead to increasing the scale of this Russian aggression against Ukraine,” the French president added along with some journalists.
Terms of negotiation
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un traveled to the Russian Far East in September, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That meeting was followed by several arms shipments, Seoul said. It is estimated that North Korea provided Russia with a million shells for its war in Ukraine in exchange for expertise in space technology. “The concern at the moment is mainly about North Korea, since they were the ones who announced during Kim Jong-un’s visit to Russia that there was some kind of real desire to advance military cooperation,” explained Emmanuel Macron’s entourage.
At the end of a state visit to China by the French president in April, Paris reiterated that Xi Jinping, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, had said he was ready to work with France to “create the conditions for negotiations” between Moscow and Kiev. Shortly afterwards, the Chinese head of state spoke on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which was seen on the French side as a positive result of Emmanuel Macron’s visit. Seven months later, however, the situation hasn’t really changed. “The goal, of course, remains a Chinese position that leads us to a result both within the framework of the goals set by the Ukrainians and within the framework of international law,” a French adviser added.
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