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Ukraine, brandy and EVs top the agenda on Xi’s charm offensive
President Xi Jinping has hailed “new vistas” in China’s relationship with France on his first trip to Europe in five years – one that feels much like a charm offensive.
Mr Xi will be looking to avert the trade war that is looming with Brussels, driven by fears of cheap Chinese electric vehicles entering the European market.
The West also accuses China of helping Vladimir Putin wage war in Ukraine by supplying technology and equipment for the Russian military.
Both issues echo Washington’s words of warning to him in recent weeks, but it is not what Mr Xi wants his own people, or indeed those in France, to hear.
Instead, he is trying to win over the French and bolster China’s influence in Europe to counter any narrative coming from the United States.
He will also meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during his visit to France. She has embraced a policy of “de-risking” from China, which includes tougher talk and cutting Europe’s dependence on Chinese imports and tech.
Later this week, he will make stops in Serbia and Hungary, allies of Moscow that have courted Chinese investment.
Mr Xi will spend most of Monday in talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Macron will want to press Mr Xi on Beijing’s friendship with Moscow – and how far it is prepared to go to settle the war in Ukraine, especially as President Putin is scheduled to visit Beijing later this month.
The two will also discuss French brandy, China’s most imported type of spirit – Beijing is threatening to impose tariffs on it in response to the EU’s investigation into Chinese EVs.
That is an alarming prospect for French brandy makers who said last week that high tariffs would be a blow to the future of the industry.
Beijing is likely to be just as concerned about the results of the EU’s investigation into Chinese subsidies for EVs. Europe is a key market for China’s hugely successful electric car makers.
Mr Xi last visited Europe in 2019 (BBC)
So, winning over Mr Macron is key if Beijing is to, as China’s ambassador to France put it, “resist anti-China relations”.
To do that Mr Xi is highlighting the ties that bind Franco-Chinese relations together as the two celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations.
The Chinese leader wrote an opinion column for the French newspaper Le Figaro and said he was coming to France with three messages: that Beijing was committed to opening up “new vistas” in its relationship with France; opening up “ever wider” to the world and to upholding world peace and stability.
Keeping with Beijing’s message, Chinese state media is also upbeat.
“China and France will light up their way forward with the torch of history, open a brighter future of China-France relations and make new contributions to world peace, stability and development,” said Xinhua.
It also highlighted President Xi’s love of French writers and artists and reported that his book has now been translated into French.
But there was also a word of caution: a Global Times editorial urged Europe to be independent and “especially not controlled by any third party”, a not-so-subtle reference to the US.
To put Paris in his corner, Mr Xi may see an opening with his French counterpart.
Beijing’s relationship with Moscow is a major source of contention (BBC)
President Macron has in the past pushed back on following US policies on China. He caused controversy during his trip to Beijing last year by saying Europe should not follow Washington “blindly” on Taiwan.
And while Mr Macron is one of the strongest backers of a raft of trade measures that have angered Beijing in recent weeks, he also wants Chinese companies to build their EV plants in France.
Even so, Mr Macron has proved he will be no pushover. Last week, as he was preparing to roll out the carpet for President Xi’s visit, he met Sikyong Penpa Tsering, the leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile, in Paris.
One of Mr Macron’s key priorities will also be to warn China of the danger of backing Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
Like the United States, France and most of the EU want Beijing to stop supplying weapons components to Moscow.
“It is in our interest to get China to weigh in on the stability of the international order,” said Mr Macron in an interview with the Economist published on Thursday.
“We must, therefore, work with China to build peace,” he added.
President Xi has so far refused to do anything to stop Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In his Le Figaro opinion column he wrote that China “understands the repercussions of the Ukraine crisis on the people of Europe” and emphasised that Beijing is not “a party to or a participant in it”, adding that “China has been playing a constructive role in striving for peaceful settlement of the crisis”.
Whatever the outcomes of his visit to France, President Xi‘s visits to Hungary and Serbia will prove that China still has allies in the eastern corner of Europe.
(BBC)
Rajat Patidar led defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) into the final with the quickest innings of 90 or more in the IPL, scoring a delightful unbeaten 93 off 33 to take his team to 254 for 5, the highest total in an IPL playoff, against the best attack of the tournament, Gujarat Titans (GT). Having finished in the top two, GT still have a chance to make the final at their home ground in Ahmedabad in Qualifier 2 as they await the winner of the Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals. The last eight IPLs have been won by the side winning this fixture: Qualifier 1.
Asked to bat first in chase-friendly Dharamsala, RCB came out full of intent and skill despite missing the injured Phil Salt, but GT nearly snuck back in with a period of 22 balls, 18 runs and two wickets of set batters in a single Jason Holder over. In the time that Patidar scored 93 off 33, the other end, including extras, produced 68 off 37 legal deliveries.
Having never scored more than 233, GT needed something special, and only Jos Buttler came close to that with 29 off 11. The RCB fast bowlers ran riot and took out half the side within the powerplay.
RCB would have dearly loved to have Salt back, but his absence allowed them to play Jacob Duffy as the fourth overseas player. Venkatesh Iyer started the innings with two fours off the first two balls, moving around in the crease to try to mess with the lengths of the GT fast bowlers. It took Virat Kohli four balls to lay bat on Kagiso Rabada’s hard lengths, but Venkatesh ramped him for a six first ball even though he got into a tangle.
Even though Rabada came back immediately with the wicket of Venkatesh, the makeshift opener had done his job with 19 off seven. Immediately after the wicket, Kohli charged at Siraj and drove him over mid-off. Some classic batting – a flick off the hip, a late cut and a square cut – from Devdutt Padikkal consigned Rabada to 18 in his second over and brought up the team fifty in just four overs.
Rattled, GT had to move away from bowling Siraj and Rabada through the powerplay for the first time in eight matches.
Holder and Rashid Khan combined to bring GT back into the contest. Holder kept hitting the hard lengths, and Rashid bowled his first two overs for no boundary. In between, Holder managed to remove Kohli and Padikkal for 43 off 25 and 30 off 19. Not big innings but ones that understood the assignment.
Having gone funky with their selection – no Romario Shepherd in the batting-first XI so they could play an extra bowler if Shepherd was not needed – RCB promoted Krunal Pandya to likely maintain ideal points of entry for Tim David and Jitesh Sharma. While Krunal did his job with 43 off 28, it was the other batter that led to dropping jaws.
Patidar broke the spell off 22 quiet balls with a pulled six off a Holder ball that wasn’t quite short enough. After a boundary-free first over from Kulwant Khejroliya, playing his first game of T20 cricket since last April, Prasidh Krishna created two opportunities in the 14th over. The first one, a leading edge, fell between the converging wicketkeeper and deep third. The second one went straight to Rabada at deep square leg, but was dropped with Patidar on 26 off 20. At the end of the 14th over, RCB were an even 140 for 3, the last time you could say the match was even.
Starting with no-balls from Khejroliya in the 15th over, the flood gates opened for 114 runs in the last six overs. Two of his nine sixes were bona fide highlights reels for the year. The first an extra-cover drive off Rashid from the crease, and then a back-foot drive over cover off Rabada, who by now had the purple cap. That shot off Rabada left even Kohli awestruck.
The GT bowlers didn’t quite try a quick bouncer at him, but Patidar nicely steered a slow bouncer over short fine with a delayed hook. At one point, even a century seemed likely, but he didn’t quite get enough strike.
For the first time ever, both innings of an IPL match started with two fours as B Sai Sudharsan hit Duffy for fours, but the GT openers were not as successful as the RCB top order at upsetting the bowlers’ lengths. Both Shubman Gill and Sudharsan tried charging at Bhuvneshwar, but got only two runs from his first over.
The pressure was mounting, but the first wicket came in an unconventional manner, with Sudharsan losing his bat as he cut Duffy away for four. The bat ricocheted onto the leg stump before the ball could reach the fence. Bhuvneshwar then extended his dominance over Gill with a wobble-seam delivery that got his leg stump. Now Bhuvneshwar leads the head-to-head with six wickets in 79 balls for just 80 runs.
No option left, Buttler came out swinging, looked dangerous, but Josh Hazlewood got the better of him with a knuckle-ball legcutter. The rest was always going to be a formality but RCB carried it out in style. Rasikh Salam bowled a double-wicket maiden to get Nishant Sindhu and Jason Holder to leave GT five down within the powerplay. Duffy ended up with three wickets, Bhuvneshwar reclaimed the purple cap, and only some late damage control from Rahul Tewatiya prevented this from becoming the biggest defeat in an IPL playoff match.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 254 for 5 in 20 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 19, Virat Kohli 43, Devdutt Padikkal 30, Rajat Patidar 93*, Krunal Pandya 43, Jitesh Sharma 15*; Kagiso Rabada 2-54, Jason Holder 2-39, Prasidh Krishna 1-53) beat Gujarat Titans 162 in 19.3 overs (Sai Sudarshan 14, Jos Buttler 29, RahulTewatia 68; Jacob Duffy 3-39, Bhuvenshwar Kumar 2-28, Josh Hazelwood 1-39, Rasik Salam 2-24, Krunal Pandya 2-16) by 92 runs
[Cricinfo]
Defending champions SC Jaffna Kings have made three signings, headlined by Shakib, while Galle Gallants and Colombo Kaps have signed two players each.
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
Patidar leads the way as Royal Challengers Bengaluru storm into second straight final
Kandy Royals sign Vijay Shankar for LPL 2026
Cabinet approves sale of Paddy stocks held by the Paddy Marketing Board
Amendment to the Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 to be gazatted
Ms. M.K.D.N. Madampe, appointed as Director General of the Department of Management Services
Cabinet approves collaboration agreement between Sri Lanka and Brazil for the implementation of the “Sugarcane Project in Sri Lanka”
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