Chinese FM holds phone talks with French president's diplomatic counselor

BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday held a phone conversation with Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic counselor to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Wang said that the successful phone conversation between the heads of state of China and France after President Macron's re-election has provided strategic guidance and injected new impetus into the healthy and stable development of China-France relations.

The two sides quickly implemented the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, and bilateral relations got off to a strong start, said Wang, adding that China is ready to work with France to push for more dynamic development of the China-France comprehensive strategic partnership.

For his part, Bonne said France attaches great importance to maintaining high-level exchanges with China. President Macron is firmly committed to the France-China friendship and hopes to push bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level.

France is ready to deepen practical cooperation with China in such fields as aviation, agriculture, food, energy and people-to-people exchanges, strengthen coordination in global affairs including biodiversity protection and climate change, and looks forward to a new round of strategic dialogue between the two countries at an early date, said Bonne.

The renewed flames of war on the European continent has dealt a heavy blow to Europe's recovery and development. Both Europe and China, as well as France and China, are committed to peace, stability and development while adhering to important concepts such as respecting international law and safeguarding sovereignty, said Bonne.

France appreciates China's positive role in promoting food and energy security, attaches great importance to its strategic coordination with China, said Bonne.

France, together with China, is willing to jointly demonstrate the responsibility of major countries, work for an early ceasefire, and minimize the negative spillover impacts of the Ukraine crisis on vulnerable and underdeveloped countries, Bonne added.

Wang said China and France are two major forces for maintaining stability in the process toward a multi-polar world.

In a turbulent international landscape, where unilateralism and the law of the jungle are raging, he said, China, as a responsible major country, has always been committed to upholding the international system with the United Nations at its core, the international order based on international law and the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

China is ready to strengthen coordination with France and make due contributions to maintaining peace, stability and development, he added.

Noting that the Ukraine crisis has shown the trend of becoming prolonged and complicated, which the world does not want to see, Wang said China has been committed to promoting peace talks from the very beginning and will continue to make every effort to play a constructive role for a ceasefire and cessation of hostilities.

China appreciates President Macron's active mediation efforts, Wang said, adding China supports and believes that France will continue to play a unique and important role as a major European country in restoring peace.

The fallout from the Ukraine crisis has led to food and energy shortages, bringing challenges and risks to global recovery as well as peace and stability, Wang said.

Noting that Chinese President Xi Jinping has put forward the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative, he said China is willing to strengthen communication with France on the implementation of these initiatives.

China has also proposed a cooperation initiative on global food security at the Group of 20 foreign ministers' meeting, which can echo the France-proposed Food and Agriculture Resilience Mission initiative in an effort to forge more international consensus, he added.

Wang expressed hope that France, as a major country in the European Union (EU) and one of the European troika, will play a positive role in promoting the sound and smooth development of China-EU relations, continue to expand the list of positive China-EU cooperation, and create new cooperation highlights such as energy security, carbon market and green finance.

He also hoped that both sides will jointly promote the success of the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the second phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15).

Bonne expressed his willingness to continue to actively promote the EU-China cooperation based on the principle of mutual benefit, reiterating that NATO will stay committed to its original geographical location when it was established, and has no intention and will not expand to the Asia-Pacific region.