Interview: Xi's visits to boost China's ties with France, Monaco: ambassador

PARIS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visits to France and Monaco will further promote China's relations with the two countries, Chinese Ambassador to France Zhai Jun has said.

Xi, who is now in Italy for a state visit, will travel to Monaco and France later during his ongoing three-nation Europe tour, his first overseas trip this year.

Xi's visit to France, five years after his last, comes at a time when the world is undergoing great changes unseen in a century and multilateralism and global governance are reaching a crossroads, Zhai told Xinhua in a recent exclusive interview.

"As two permanent members of the UN (United Nations) Security Council and two countries with global influence, China and France have responsibilities for the future of mankind," he said. "The importance of bilateral relations has increased under the new circumstances."

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and France. Despite the vicissitudes in the international landscape, Zhai said, China-France relations have been steadily advancing along the way blazed by the previous generations of the two countries' leaders and have made great achievements.

China-France cooperation, he noted, has now been expanded to many fields ranging from agriculture, advanced manufacturing and health care to nuclear energy, aerospace and artificial intelligence.

In 2018, bilateral trade reached 60 billion U.S. dollars, and more than 2.3 million Chinese tourists visited France, both registering a record high, said Zhai.

Now over 100,000 French students are learning Chinese, while the number of Chinese students studying in France is expected to reach 50,000 in 2020, he added, also noting that the two countries have so far set up over 100 pairs of sister cities.

"The link between China and France has never been so close like today, and the peoples of the two countries have never been so eager to understand each other," Zhai said.

The ambassador noted that three major features have emerged in China-France and China-Europe relations: ever closer strategic coordination, ever deeper practical cooperation and ever stronger social support for the friendships.

In a world with rising uncertainties due to unilateralism, protectionism and other challenges, China and France, as well as Europe as a whole, are unwaveringly committed to safeguarding the multilateral international governance system and the open and liberal international economic order, and serving as key stabilizing factors in the world, Zhai said.

He pointed out that trade relations between China and Europe have become increasingly close. For example, the China-Europe Railway Express has connected China to 50 cities in 15 European countries within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Both China and Europe, he said, seek to push forward economic globalization in a more open, inclusive and balanced manner that features win-win cooperation and benefits all.

In the education realm, 131 Confucius Institutes have been established in European Union (EU) member states, and all 24 official languages of the EU are being taught in Chinese colleges, Zhai said, adding that about 300,000 Chinese students are studying in EU countries, while over 45,000 EU students are studying in China.

"These figures show that China-France and China-Europe relations enjoy an increasingly robust foundation of public support and an increasingly bright future," he said.

On China-Monaco relations, Zhai, who is also China's ambassador to Monaco, said Xi's state visit to the principality, the first-ever by a Chinese president, bears "epoch-making significance."

Although the two countries are distant from each other and different in size, China and Monaco respect each other, treat each other equally, and have enjoyed a smooth development in bilateral relations, he said.

The relationship, full of positive energy, "sets a good example of big and small countries fostering friendly relations and pursuing common development," Zhai said.