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00:00 Chinese President Xi Jinping as he's arrived here in Paris for a state visit.
00:04 Despite the friendly words though, a series of important international issues
00:08 to tackle, among them Ukraine, the Middle East and a series as well of disputes
00:13 over trade. Well we're going to cross then to the Elysee Palace to talk to our
00:17 senior reporter James Andre who joins us from there. James, it's a very important
00:21 visit of course this, lots of big issues to talk about as well, notably trade as well.
00:27 Yes absolutely, this is going to be the first issues that are discussed here today.
00:35 Ursula von der Leyen has just arrived here at the Elysee Palace. Xi Jinping is due
00:40 very very shortly and the first discussion is going to be held with
00:45 these three leaders around the table. Emmanuel Macron, President of France,
00:49 Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council and Xi Jinping, the
00:53 President of China. What we've been seeing is a series of tit-for-tat trade
00:58 disputes between the EU and China. I mean the latest move being China saying that
01:04 France and Europe is basically dumping brandy on the Chinese market. This is
01:10 very much seen here at the Elysee Palace and in France as a direct attack on
01:14 France since most of the brandy is indeed from France and well we are
01:21 expecting to see discussions around that but of course the fact that Ursula von
01:24 der Leyen is here in person is very clearly to talk about markets such as
01:28 electric cars, batteries, the overproduction capacities of China which
01:33 are very worrying to the EU market since indeed the risk is massive dumping of
01:38 Chinese products on the European market and this is what obviously Ursula von
01:44 der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron want to avoid. Now the Chinese
01:48 President is arriving as we speak, he's just about to drive into
01:51 the courtyard. James, of course as well the world's major crises will be
01:57 discussed, notably Ukraine. Yes absolutely, Ukraine is going to be very
02:04 big, that's what we've been told in here at the Elysee Palace. One of the main
02:08 objectives of this state visit for Emmanuel Macron is to get Xi Jinping to
02:14 use his influence which is sizable on the Russians to try and as they say here
02:22 change the calculus when it comes to Ukraine. It's important to note that most
02:26 of Russia's trade right now is with China, that's a figure that's gone up
02:32 over 60% since the beginning of the war and indeed there is a widely seen
02:38 assumption that while China is helping Russia with its offensive in Ukraine,
02:44 notably by sending in some machine tools including digitally controlled ones
02:51 which are very useful to create armament or weapons, also sending in components
02:56 and drones that are used on the battlefield. Now this is one thing
03:00 that Emmanuel Macron wants to discuss very directly with Xi Jinping and that
03:03 is of course the potential sanctioning of these companies as since well the EU
03:09 wants to make sure that well the these components stop entering Russia because
03:18 well they say that there is some sanction dodging on the Chinese part.
03:22 Emmanuel Macron really wants to hit it home to Xi Jinping that Ukraine is a
03:27 matter of national security to France. Here is the Chinese president walking
03:31 across this courtyard here at the Elysee and he's going to be welcomed in just
03:35 one minute by Emmanuel Macron. You can see here behind me walking towards the
03:40 Chinese president and shaking hands. Yeah it's quite an image isn't it James
03:44 we're able to see those images now of Xi Jinping walking there in the Elysee
03:48 Palace. It's quite impressive just to see you know him there and that meeting
03:52 taking place isn't it? Yes it is, it's very important and indeed it is it's not
04:00 the first time the two men have met. Emmanuel Macron has travelled to China
04:03 twice. Xi Jinping has tried and travelled to France here also before but this is
04:08 the first official state visit with this level if you will of protocol. This is
04:14 very much a high-level visit. What we have here is a visit of the Invalides
04:19 which is planned at the beginning of the afternoon. There will be a troops review
04:21 then there will be a bilateral meeting here at the Elysee Palace then an
04:26 economic forum when both men will speak at a conclusion that of course is very
04:30 important and then this evening a state dinner and tomorrow a visit to the
04:34 southwest of France which is supposed to be a much more personal moment where
04:39 Emmanuel Macron hopes to be able to speak to the Chinese president without
04:43 all the pomp and protocol for a few hours and have a heart-to-heart
04:47 discussion about the situation. James thanks very much. James Andre there at