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The EU is set to hold a virtual summit with China against a backdrop of increasing alarm over Beijing’s growing proximity with Moscow and its reluctance to condemn its invasion of Ukraine. Follow our live blog for the latest developments. All times are Paris time [GMT+2].
7:15am: EU to push China at virtual summit to not support Russia
Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold the videoconference with EU leaders Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, carrying through on an annual exercise that was skipped last year as tensions simmered.
“The meeting will focus on the role we are urging China to play, to be on the side of the principles of international law without ambiguity and exert all the necessary influence and pressure on Russia,” said French European affairs minister Clement Beaune, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
“This was not the initial purpose of the summit but it necessarily became one,” Beaune said, though he insisted other topics such as climate and trade “would not disappear”.
The EU-China summit is usually an effort to deepen trade ties. But, last year’s exchange of tit-for-tat sanctions over the plight of China’s Uyghur minority, followed by Beijing’s trade coercion of EU-member Lithuania over Taiwan, soured preparations for the meeting.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
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