France and China agree joint cooperation action plan

Beijing, 6 November 2019

At the invitation of Mr Xi Jinping, President of China, M. Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, paid a state visit to China from 4 to 6 November 2019. Fifty-five years after diplomatic relations were established between the two countries, the two heads of state agreed, in line with the joint declarations adopted on 9 January 2018 and 25 March 2019, to deepen the Franco-Chinese global strategic partnership, open up new prospects of cooperation between the two countries and create new trade opportunities between the two peoples.

With this in mind, France and China have decided to carry out joint action in the following areas in particular:

Strengthening political dialogue and promoting mutual trust

1. The two heads of state will continue holding annual meetings.

2. France and China pledge to continue developing strategic dialogue, high-level economic and financial dialogue and high-level dialogue on people-to-people exchanges. The two parties intend to step up their high-level military exchanges, maintain consultation and dialogue mechanisms and share experience, particularly when it comes to peacekeeping operations.

3. The two heads of state encourage high-level discussions on all issues of common interest to promote the development of their bilateral cooperation.

4. France and China will continue their dialogue to promote multilateralism and the protection of an international system which puts the UN at its centre and is based on international law.

Protecting the planet

1. With the experience gained from COP21 in Paris and from the preparation of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit on 23 September 2019, France and China are determined to continue their cooperation in the fight against global warming and for preserving biodiversity, inter alia in the run-up to COP15 in Kunming in 2020. To this end, the two heads of state adopted the Beijing Call. They welcome the launch of joint dialogue on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

2. France and China encourage their development institutions to bring their practices into line with the goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity. They also support the promotion and development of green, sustainable finance.

3. France and China would like to develop their partnership in the areas of the energy transition and the development of low-carbon technology. They will also continue their cooperation on sustainable urbanization, with the continued development of Franco-Chinese sustainable city pilot projects in Wuhan, and the sustainable eco-district in Chengdu.

4. The two countries affirm their desire to step up, bilaterally and in multilateral bodies, their discussions and cooperation on industrial risk management and the prevention and reduction of natural disasters.

Promoting interconnectivity

1. France and China reaffirm their support for the promotion of sustainable connectivity between Europe and Asia. They support the work under way between the EU and China to develop synergies between connectivity initiatives, in particular the EU’s Europe-Asia Connectivity Strategy and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. They pledge to comply with international norms and standards and the legislation of the countries benefiting from the projects, while taking into account their individual policies and situations as regards infrastructure financing, in order to achieve sustainable financing of development. They welcome the adoption of the G20’s operational principles on the subject and call for them to be followed up.

2. On the basis of the lists of pilot projects, France and China will continue to identify projects promoted jointly on third-country markets, particularly in Asia and Africa. In accordance with the intergovernmental declaration of 30 June 2015, they welcome the discussions between the economic actors to define and deliver concrete projects benefiting everyone, with the consent of the countries concerned and with due regard for universally accepted international rules and standards.

Promoting bilateral trade and cross investment

1. The two countries advocate the improvement of international economic governance and the development of economic globalization towards a more open, more transparent, more inclusive, non-discriminatory system to protect the rules-based system of multilateral trade centred on the World Trade Organization (WTO). They advocate adherence by all WTO members to their commitments and obligations within the WTO, in order to ensure that the multilateral system remains solid and credible. France and China intend to continue their joint efforts to build an open global economy and combat every form of protectionism, while ensuring fair competition. To this end, they support a necessary reform of the WTO to make it more effective, more authoritative and better able to meet current and future challenges. The two countries call for discussions to progress on the proposals submitted to WTO members on strengthening the WTO’s three essential functions, namely dispute settlement, monitoring and negotiations. They back the work done by the EU-China working group on WTO reform, which should allow progress to be made, with the two parties having high expectations in this area.

2. France and China would like to rebalance their bilateral economic exchanges from the top down. China’s invitation to France to the China International Import Expo in Shanghai shows China’s readiness to see French businesses increase their exports to the Chinese market. The two parties pledge to grant fair and non-discriminatory conditions of competition to businesses on both sides. They encourage the mutual opening of both countries’ financial markets and support the development of the activities of one country’s qualified financial institutions in the other. They agree to strengthen agricultural cooperation on every front, which will encourage exports of French agricultural products to China.

3. The two heads of state welcome the signature, in the context of this visit, of several important agreements which help achieve this goal, in areas as varied as certification, aeronautics, industry, finance and agrifood. China and France are going to begin technical discussions with a view to concluding an agreement on zoning in the fight against African swine fever. The two heads of state agree that a road map for this purpose should be established as a matter of priority and they will work to ensure it produces concrete results in 2020 on the basis of the reciprocity principle. They also welcome the signature of 24 contracts between French and Chinese businesses.

4. In line with the commitments made at the EU-China summit of 9 April 2019, France and China welcome the importance of the completion of negotiations on the EU-China Agreement on Cooperation on, and Protection of, Geographical Indications (GIs). They will spare no effort to ensure decisive progress is made in the near future, in order to consider reaching an ambitious comprehensive investment agreement in 2020 in line with the ambitions set out at the EU-China summit of 9 April 2019.

5. The two parties welcome the signing of the Franco-Chinese protocol on cooperation on geographical indications and will continue their work on registering the 86 French geographical indications and the Chinese geographical indications.

Promoting cooperation in key and emerging sectors

1. France and China reaffirm the importance of their strategic partnership in the field of aeronautics, maintaining an overall balance. The two parties support the strengthening of Airbus’s industrial footprint in China and the continued purchase of Airbus planes by Chinese airlines, under the conditions envisaged by the parties. They promote the A350 completion and delivery centre project. They welcome ongoing discussions to strengthen Airbus’s industrial and commercial presence in China. They wish to promote the development of Franco-Chinese cooperation in the field of helicopters, particularly in terms of engines and pilot training. They welcome the desire of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to strengthen their cooperation to finalize the certification process for the ATR 42-600 plane and the H175 helicopter. They will also deepen their cooperation in the area of air traffic management.

2. France and China intend to further strengthen cooperation in the space field at institutional and industrial level, particularly by facilitating steps to jointly develop the SVOM astronomy satellite planned for 2021, and on very high-speed broadband telecommunications satellites. They will also develop new cooperation on space exploration, astrophysics and climate monitoring, in accordance with the letter of intent between the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) adopted on 25 March 2019.

3. For the past 35 years, the civil nuclear cooperation partnership has been one of the great successes of the Franco-Chinese relationship. The two heads of state welcome the signing of the memorandum of understanding on cooperation for the construction of a spent nuclear-fuel processing and recycling plant. They would now like negotiations between manufacturers to be concluded as soon as possible. They reaffirm their desire to conclude the IGA governing this project within the same period. They welcome the successful start of the first two EPR reactors in Taishan, the world’s first two EPRs to be put into commercial operation. Building on this success, they encourage CGN and EDF to initiate further discussions to continue their cooperation in China and third-country markets on a balanced, transparent and mutually beneficial basis. France and China pledge to actively promote nuclear-power cooperation in the United Kingdom, particularly the construction of two EPRs at Hinkley Point C, the British safety authorities’ GDA certification of the UK-HPR1000 reactor and the preparation of the Sizewell C and Bradwell B projects.

4. The two heads of state encourage the relevant administrations to make proposals to them to deepen the Franco-Chinese partnership in the field of technologies of the future, in order to promote industrial cooperation in new sectors. In this regard, they welcome exchanges and cooperation between Chinese modern-manufacturing and technology centres and French competitiveness clusters.

5. France and China pledge to continue their scientific and technological cooperation in relation to the priority themes defined at the China-France Science and Technology Cooperation Joint Commission meeting of 25 February 2019, and those associated with the fight against climate change and the preservation of biodiversity.

Promoting cultural creativity and people-to-people exchanges

1. France and China reaffirm the priority they attach to developing their cultural partnership. As such, they welcome the long-term partnership between the Centre Pompidou and the Shanghai West Bund Museum and support the joint organization of the exhibition “China in Versailles” at the Imperial Palace Museum and an exhibition on “The Silk Roads” by the National Museum of China and the Arab World Institute in Paris. They pledge to facilitate the organization of joint or reciprocal exhibitions between their museums.

2. France and China pledge to intensify their bilateral cooperation in the field of protecting, restoring and enhancing cultural heritage. They envisage the implementation of new cooperation programmes, particularly on the site of the Terracotta Army in Xi’an and on the Notre-Dame Cathedral restoration site in Paris. They also welcome the ongoing cooperation within the Aliph Foundation for the protection and restoration of endangered heritage in areas of armed conflict. The two parties will work to strengthen their exchanges in the fight against illegal trafficking in cultural property, the prevention of theft, illegal excavation and the illegal entry and exit of cultural property, with a view to concluding a possible intergovernmental agreement on the issue that would strengthen the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

3. Keen to promote respect for cultural diversity in the world, the two parties reaffirm their desire to strengthen their cooperation in the field of cultural and creative industries and their potential for dissemination to the widest public, particularly in the film, publishing, music, architecture, video game and digital sectors, through co-productions, distribution agreements, trademark transfers, commissions, competitions and artist exchanges.

4. The two parties reaffirm the priority they attach to strengthening educational and linguistic cooperation, particularly through the training of French teachers in China and Chinese teachers in France. France and China support the presence of Alliances françaises in China, according to the terms and conditions agreed between the two parties, as well as that of Chinese language teaching institutions in France.

5. They reiterate their commitment to strengthening academic cooperation and student mobility, particularly by promoting the development of partnerships between higher education institutions. They are ready to broaden their cooperation on the training of high-level talent.

6. France and China have decided to organize a Franco-Chinese year of cultural tourism in 2021, and they support the twinning of Chinese and French historical sites and monuments.

7. The two countries emphasize the importance for each country’s development of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, in accordance with the goals and principles of the United Nations Charter. They reaffirm the importance of continuing dialogue and exchanges between the European Union and China on human rights, on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

8. Continuing the cooperation initiated as part of the Franco-Chinese dialogue on law and justice, in particular by implementing the four-year programme of technical cooperation on legal matters. Promoting, in a spirit of equality and reciprocity, mutual police and judicial assistance in civil and criminal matters, particularly as regards the fight against transnational crime.

9. With France and China due to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2024 and the winter of 2022 respectively, they wish to make sport an important part of the bilateral relationship, particularly with regard to exchanges between young sportsmen and women, developing sports facilities and sharing expertise in the sports industry. They wish to promote the Olympic spirit in France and China, exchanges of good practice between teams, and linguistic and cultural cooperation in the framework of the agreement concluded between the two Olympic Games organizing committees and arrangements for the use of French as an official language of the Olympic Games./.