President Emmanuel Macron of France and Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, on Thursday appealed for a rapid return to peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, but Xi did not indicate whether he would use his close relationship with Moscow to push Russia to negotiate.
Greeted with great pomp at the flag-bedecked Great Hall of the People, Macron told Xi that he was counting on him "to bring Russia back to reason and everyone back to the negotiating table” on Ukraine.
Xi, flanked by the French leader, went partway toward a positive response. He said that "together with France, we appeal for reason and restraint” in the conflict. China was seeking "a resumption of peace talks as soon as possible,” he said, and, in an apparent nod to Russian concerns over NATO’s expansion eastward, "a European security architecture that is balanced, effective and lasting.”