Macron and China’s Xi break protocol for one-on-one visit to the Pyrenees

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Pyrenees mountains on Tuesday on the second day of a trip during which Xi showed little sign of being ready to offer major concessions on trade or foreign policy.

Advisers to the French president described the Pyrenees trip as breaking with protocol for a chance for one-on-one chats with Xi, without scores of aides, in mountains dear to Macron as the birthplace of his maternal grandmother.

One of Macron's main objectives is to convince Xi to reduce the trade imbalance between the two regions, with better access for European firms in China and fewer subsidies for Chinese exporters.

Macron and his wife, Brigitte, who greeted Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the airport in windy weather, took them to lunch high up in the mountains.

The two couples, who travelled on separate flights from Paris, also took separate cars to the mountains and arrived amid thick fog - missing out on the view.

After watching traditional dancers perform under the snowy peaks, they ate locally grown ham, lamb, cheese and blueberry pie. Xi said he would give the ham some publicity and also praised the cheese.

Macron has a history of trying to establish outside-of-protocol personal relationships with his counterparts, even those he strongly disagrees with, in often not very successful bids to obtain more from them.

Macron is keen to embrace, hug, wink at or slap his counterparts on the back - which he did not chance with Xi, who is not a hugger.

(Reuters)

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