A trip to the Pyrenees: how Emmanuel Macron decided to break protocol to forge a personal relationship with Xi Jinping

French President Emmanuel Macron is driving Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Pyrenees mountains on Tuesday for the second day of a visit during which Xi has given little sign that he is prepared to offer major concessions on trade or foreign policy, Reuters writes .

Emmanuel Macron is taking the Chinese leader to lunch in the area where his maternal grandmother was born, a region that is personally important to him.

Advisers to the French president said he decided to simply break protocol for a chance to have face-to-face talks with Xi without accompanying advisers.

Macron and his wife, Brigitte, welcomed Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at Tarbes-Lourdes Pyrenees Airport in cold weather.

The four, accompanied by translators, will eat lamb, cheese and blueberry pie at a traditional restaurant high in the mountains, about an hour’s drive from the airport.

One of Macron’s main goals for the visit is to try to persuade Xi to reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries, with better access for European firms to China and fewer subsidies for Chinese exporters.

Macron is known for trying to establish personal relationships outside of protocol with his counterparts, even those with whom he strongly disagrees.

Xi’s invitation to the Pyrenees echoes the visit of former US President Donald Trump, who joined Macron in 2017 to watch the Bastille Day parade. Russian President Vladimir Putin also traveled in 2019 to the French president’s summer residence in the Bregancon fortress in southeastern France.

Not all French politicians look kindly on this strategy.

“Emmanuel Macron tried this narcissistic tyrant-flattering diplomacy with Vladimir Putin for five years,” Raphael Glucksmann, who heads the French Socialist list for the European Parliament, told RTL radio.

“And it all ended with the invasion of Ukraine and the threats to our democracies,” he noted.

French and Chinese companies struck several deals in energy, finance and transport on Monday on the sidelines of Xi’s visit, but most were cooperation agreements or renewed pledges to work together and there were no significant deals.

European hopes of an Airbus jet order to coincide with Xi’s visit appear to have been dashed, with the two sides agreeing only to expand cooperation.

Industry sources say the two sides have been in negotiations for months over a new order of planes.

However, French cognac makers grew more optimistic on Tuesday after Macron noted an “open attitude” by China to a trade dispute between the two countries over the issue.

Macron’s official gifts to Xi included cognacs from LVMH-owned Hennessey LVMH.PA and Remy Cointreau RCOP.PA, which are among the French companies affected by China’s cognac anti-dumping investigation.

A French diplomatic source said China would not impose customs duties on French cognac pending the investigation. Xi did not comment on this during his numerous public statements on Monday.

Complicated talks on EU-China relations

On Monday, Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen urged Xi Jinping to secure more balanced trade with Europe, but the Chinese leader has given little sign that he is willing to offer major concessions.

The European Union “cannot absorb the massive overproduction of Chinese industrial goods flooding its market,” von der Leyen said after the three held talks at the Elysee Palace.

“Europe will not hesitate to take the tough decisions needed to protect its market,” she said, referring to trade investigations and sanctions that could follow. The relationship between Europe and China is affected by unequal market access and Chinese state subsidies, she said.

Speaking later alongside Xi, after the two met several times during the day, reviewed troops together and shook hands repeatedly for the cameras, Macron told reporters: The EU today has the most open market in the world, but we want to be able to protect it”.

The EU’s more assertive stance on trade with China matches Washington’s approach.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned Beijing that Washington will not allow new industries to be “decimated” by Chinese imports.

During their closed-door talks, Xi agreed that economic and trade frictions should be addressed through dialogue, Chinese state media said.

But he also told Macron and von der Leyen that China’s overcapacity problem “does not exist either from the perspective of comparative advantage or in light of global demand,” Chinese media said.

He later said China and France would work to rebalance trade from the summit, but offered few details.

A highly anticipated visit to Serbia

Xi Jinping is due to leave for Serbia on Tuesday, in an important symbolic moment, 25 years after the accidental NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, in which three Chinese journalists were killed.

Twenty Chinese nationals were injured in the 1999 NATO attack, which prompted outrage in China and an apology from then-US President Bill Clinton.

The embassy was struck during a campaign against then-Yugoslavia to force Slobodan Milosevic to end his repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

“The Chinese people value peace, but will never allow a historical tragedy to repeat itself,” Xi said in an op-ed published in the daily Politika on Tuesday.

“The friendship between China and Serbia, which is soaked in the blood that the two peoples have shed together, has become a shared memory and will encourage both sides to take giant steps forward together,” Xi said.

The streets of Belgrade were decorated with Chinese flags and placards, while thousands of police were deployed to ensure the security of Xi and his 400-member entourage.

In Belgrade, Xi will discuss China’s multi-billion investments in Serbia and possible new agreements. In 2023, China was Serbia’s second trading partner after the EU, with a total trade exchange of $6.1 billion, and among the top five investors, according to the latest figures from the national investment agency.

During his first visit to Belgrade in 2016, the two countries signed a strategic partnership. Last year, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic signed 18 agreements with Xi in Beijing, including a free trade agreement that is expected to become operational in July.

The two leaders talk about an iron partnership between their countries. Along with Hungary, which is Xi’s next stop, Serbia is the staunchest European supporter of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

China runs mines and factories in Serbia and has lent billions of dollars for roads, bridges and new facilities, becoming a key partner in developing much-needed infrastructure.

Observers say Xi’s arrival in Serbia and Hungary is meant to strengthen ties between two European countries that are pro-Russia and big beneficiaries of Chinese investment.