Macron to visit China to push Xi Jinping to help end war in Ukraine: Report

French President Emmanuel Macron is planning a visit to Beijing to seek Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s help in ending the war in Ukraine, according to a report.

In recent years, China has emerged as the main ally of Russia — particularly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As Western sanctions blocked the Western markets, China came to Russia’s economic rescue . It is not the main import and export partner of Russia and is also central to war efforts, providing dual-use technology, raw materials for weapons productions, drones, spare parts, critical machinery for the defence industry, etc.

Despite such an extent of Chinese support to Russia , there are hopes in the West that Xi may be interesting in bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.

The South China Morning Post has reported that Macron’s visit is in advanced stages of planning.

The newspaper reported that Macron’s trusted diplomatic adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, travelled to Beijing this week to lay the groundwork for Macron’s visit.

Lately, Macron appears to have taken a lead in Europe’s efforts to bring a ceasefire in Ukraine. He just visited Poland where he discussed with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk plans to station troops from European Union (EU) member-states in Ukraine to monitor a ceasefire whenever it is reached in the future.

Last week, Macron also presided over a meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in France. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump “pushed the Europeans to do more to get the Chinese to press the Kremlin to end the conflict” during the meeting.

The newspaper reported that three leaders discussed using tariffs on China as a bargaining chip to make China press Russia. Trump has long sought to use tariffs as a tool to shape countries’ behaviour in his favour — though it has not always worked so. In his first term, China fooled him and signed a trade deal following tariffs but did not follow through on any of the commitments part of the deal.

Trump has said that he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours by leveraging his personal relationships with Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He said in an interview last year that he would use assistance to Ukraine as a tool to make Zelenskyy and Putin agree to his terms.

“I know Zelenskyy very well and I know Putin very well — even better. And I had a good relationship — very good with both of them. I would tell Zelenskyy, ’no more [assistance]. You got to make a deal’. I would tell Putin, ‘if you don’t make a deal, we’re going to give him a lot. We’re going to [give Ukraine] more than they ever got if we have to’. I will have the deal done in one day — one day,” said Trump in an interview with Fox News.