With lamb & cheese, Macron tries to charm Xi in Pyrenees

Pyrenees (France), May 7

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Chinese President Xi Jinping showed little sign of being ready to offer big concessions on trade or foreign policy as he wrapped up a two-day visit to France, during which President Emmanuel Macron pressed him on market access and Ukraine.

Macron and his wife Brigitte greeted Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan at the airport in Pyrenees on Tuesday, and took them to lunch in the mountains dear to the French President as the birthplace of his maternal grandmother.

After watching traditional dancers perform under the snowy peaks, they ate locally grown ham, lamb, cheese and blueberry pie. Xi has said he would welcome more high-level talks on trade frictions but denied there was a Chinese “overcapacity problem”, casting doubts on what progress can be achieved. — Reuters