The Xi-Macron Summit's Unexpected Payoff
There was no breakthrough on Russia and Ukraine, but the Western alliance stayed strong.
Power trio.
Photographer: Zhai Jianlan/Xinhua via Getty Images
The most important diplomatic encounter in quite a while — between President Emmanuel Macron of France and China’s president, Xi Jinping — turned out to be far less important than either side had hoped. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have led to the sort of damage many in the US had feared.
Last week’s visit was billed as a potential diplomatic breakthrough, in which the charismatic Frenchman would charm the Chinese leader into pushing his “no limits” friend, Russian President Vladimir Putin, into peace negotiations over the war in Ukraine. Xi, on the other hand, likely hoped to create division in the Western alliance and build a much stronger bilateral relationship with France. Yet the visit appears to have yielded nothing substantial, and left a number of unanswered questions in its wake.