A few days ago, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron met. In fact, they had dinner together on Thursday, May 2, in order to agree while the Chinese president arrived in France this Sunday, May 5. While there are many areas of tension between Beijing and the European Union, they had to try to find solutions and prepare for this meeting in advance.
Brigitte Macron and the wife of the German Chancellor also participated in this outing which took place in the Parisian brasserie La Rotonde in Paris where the French head of state has his habits. “Afterwork”, we can read in the caption of a photo shared by the head of state. A rather intimate photo in which we can see the two men and their respective wives.
An informal dinner in Paris
The German Chancellor and Emmanuel Macron therefore exchanged for a good while to “align their positions before the state visit to France of the Chinese president”, was declared this Friday, May 3, in the entourage of the French president. “This conversation will allow the President of the Republic to approach the discussion with Xi Jinping in a European way”in fact, explained a member of his entourage.
The Chancellor’s spokesperson declared: “Upstream consultation between Germany and France is still very narrow. It’s a good exercise, and we will continue this Franco-German cooperation in this area, particularly on the theme of security.”
“It’s one of my main goals”
In an interview with the British newspaper The Economist, Emmanuel Macron asked Europe to continue to defend “its strategic interests” in front of China: “It’s a of my main objectives by welcoming President Xi Jinping, we must do everything to engage China on major global issues and have an exchange on our economic relations which are based on reciprocity”he revealed.
The head of state then clarified: “Today we must behave respectfully, but defensively, on the commercial level with China. of our interestsreciprocity and national security.”
 photo shared by Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron){kind=link}