CHINA: French President Chirac meets his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing for talks on unifying efforts on North Korea

China prepared a lavish ceremonial welcome on Thursday (October 26) for French President Jacques Chirac at the formal start of a state visit capping a decade of improving ties with one of Beijing's strongest Western allies. Chirac's four-day visit is seen as the last major foreign trip of his mandate. He held talks with President Hu Jintao following a military parade and 21-gun salute in Tianamen Square, site of a bloody crackdown on protesters in 1989 that led to a European arms export ban which Chirac now wants lifted. The French leader's vocal, though so far unsuccessful, support for an end to the EU ban, earned him tributes in China's official press at the start of the visit, his fourth to China since he was first elected president in 1995. Hu and Chirac sat down after talks to sign a raft of business agreements ranging from cooperation in aviation to nuclear power and prevention of infectious diseases. The two also issued a joint statement urging North Korea to return to six-party disarmament talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, the United States and host China. "We talked about North Korea and we are pleased about the unanimous approval of UN resolutions 17 and 18, and I wanted to pay tribute to China's sense of responsibilities which it showed during this event," said Chirac North Korea's nuclear test on Oct. 9 drew regional condemnation and UN sanctions under resolution 1718, backed by China, the reclusive state's long-time supporter. But Beijing fears sanctions that squeeze impoverished North Korea tightly could tear apart relations and risk the North's collapse, sending waves of refugees into China and threatening regional turmoil. It has called again and again for limited pressure and more diplomacy. French President Jacques Chirac also met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (pron: wehn djee-ah bah-ow) for talks in Beijing on Thursday wrapping up a day of high-level meetings, political discussion and trade deals. Trade also figured in Chirac's visit to the mainland. Earlier in the day European plane maker Airbus and French engineering and utility firms landed deals worth more than 10 billion USD. Trade between China and France has improved sharply with France since Paris angered China by selling frigates and warplanes to Taiwan in the early 1990s. Chirac urged China to step up efforts to protect environment and join the efforts of the international community. "China, whose growth is being admired by all, is the first producer of sulphur oxide and the second of carbon dioxide. To reconcile economic development, saving natural resources and preserving the ecologic balance is a challenge China is resolute to meet with its eleventh five-year-plan. It is also why France pleads in favour of a UN organisation dedicated to environmental protection, and calls on China to back our proposal," said Chirac. China's rapid industrialisation and urbanisation in the last two decades have brought severe damage to the environment. The emission of air pollutants and discharge of untreated waste water have turned Chinese cities into some of the most polluted in the world. According to the World Bank, pollution is costing China an annual 8 to 12 percent of its $1.4 trillion economy in direct damage, such as the impact on crops of acid rain and floods. Chirac, 73, has not yet said if he will run for a third term in 2007, but his visit to China is widely seen as a swan song designed to brush up his legacy abroad as he strives to inject fresh vigor into the final stretch of his mandate at home. After Beijing, Chirac's visit will take him to the inland city of Wuhan, where French car firm Peugeot Citroen plans a second factory, and the imperial heritage site of Xian.

ITN Source | October 26, 2006

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