Macron hosts Xi Jinping in French mountains
President Xi Jinping on Tuesday continued his state visit to France by visiting the Pyrenees mountains, where he met his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. At the Tarbes-Lourdes Pyrenees airport, Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were greeted by Macron and his wife, Brigitte, who took them to lunch high up in the mountains. 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 gifted Xi a woollen blanket made in the Pyrenees, a Tour de France jersey and armagnac from the nearby southwestern region. Advisers to the French president described the Pyrenees trip as breaking with protocol for a chance for one-on-one chats with Xi in mountains dear to Macron as the birthplace of his maternal grandmother. Xi has said he would welcome more high-level talks on trade frictions, and has denied there was a Chinese "overcapacity problem".  Macron has made trade a priority in the talks, underscoring that Europe must defend its "strategic interests" in its economic relations with China. Meanwhile, Chinese and French companies had concluded some agreements on Monday ranging from energy, finance and transport on the sidelines of Xi's visit, but most were agreements to cooperate or renewed commitments to work together, and there were no significant deals. In a sign of some progress, China will allow imports of pig origin protein feed as well as pork offal from France effective immediately, according to statements from Chinese customs and the French farm ministry. But European hopes of an Airbus plane order to coincide with Xi's visit appear to have been dashed, with the two sides agreeing only to expand co-operation. Xi travels later on Tuesday to Serbia.  Writing in Serbian daily Politika ahead of arriving in Belgrade, Xi criticised Nato for its "flagrant" bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999, warning Beijing would "never allow such tragic history to repeat itself". (Reuters/AFP)