Emmanuel Macron met with Xi Jinping in Rio yesterday during G20 meetings to talk about nuclear-related worries: after Vladimir Putin made it easier to use nuclear weapons‚ Macron thinks China should step-in
The French leader pointed-out that North Koreas troops joining Ukraine fight makes things more complex; this puts extra weight on Beijings shoulders to cool-down the situation (especially after Moscow changed its nuclear-use rules)
The timing is linked to Ukraines use of US-made ATACMS missiles which now hit deeper into Russian areas; this happened after Joe Biden okʼd their use about 3 months ago when the war hit its 1000-day mark
Looking forward Macron shared his next-steps:
- Planning a tech meet-up in Paris with Donald Trump and Elon Musk this winter
- Working on fixing trade issues that hurt French cognac sales to China
- Sending Michel Barnier to Beijing early next year
The whole talk shows how Paris tries to keep good ties with Beijing: dealing with both business deals and world safety at once