President Francois Hollande arrived Sunday in Hangzhou, in eastern China, to attend the G20, his last one of his five years where he intends to advocate the “intensification of the fight against tax evasion and corruption.”
The French presidential plane landed at 11.50 am local time at Hangzhou airport under high security, said a journalist.
“France is in favour of open trade, but in transparency, on a reciprocal basis and with respect for social and environmental standards” , said the French president on his Facebook page before flying to China .
And while many G20 leaders have called for a counter to the rise of protectionism around the globe, and that China maintains numerous trade disputes with the European Union and the United States.
Question of Syria
On the sidelines of the G20, Mr Hollande must meet a series of foreign leaders including Egyptian Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Australian Malcolm Turnbull, the Saudi Mohammed bin Salman or Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Faced with this last Sunday at 10.30pm, François Hollande has reaffirmed for the umpteenth time that there is no “military solution” to the Syrian conflict, and that “the issue is political” .
Syria will also be the focus of a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could be extended to other European leaders.
Pollution, trade deficit
Francois Hollande, who will introduce the G20 debates on terrorist financing and climate, will also be received on Monday evening, after the summit by his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a working dinner.
On the menu of this interview will appear again the trade deficit of France with regard to China, which amounted to € 25.2 billion in 2015, representing almost a third of the overall trade deficit of France .
Even before the opening of the summit, the United States and China, major polluters of the planet, have ratified Saturday the global climate agreement concluded in December as strongly wished France, craftsman of this agreement.
This ratification “opens up (its) entry into force” to “the end of the year” , welcomed Francois Hollande.
Following his meeting with Xi Jinping, head of the French State will fly to Vietnam, where he will visit 48 hours with the intent to promote “economic cooperation with Southeast Asia whose growth is exceptional, but also the culture and the Francophonie “ .
Here too, however, the close relations between Paris and its former colony were marked by a heavy trade deficit at the expense of France. It has widened to 2.6 billion euros in 2015 against 2.4 billion in 2014.
