France has signed €40bn of business deals with China, despite concerns on strategic investment and human rights abuse, reports EUobserver.
The bulk of the new deals, worth €30bn, were in the form of 300 airplanes to be sold by European firm Airbus to China Aviation Supplies Holding Company, while the rest covered energy, transport, and food.
French president Emmanuel Macron and Chinese president Xi Jinping announced the moves at a bilateral meeting in France on Monday (25 March).
They will meet again in an enlarged format with German chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker also in France on Tuesday.
Xi is in Paris after having earlier gone to Rome to sign a memo on Italy's participation in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) - a vast scheme for Chinese investment in European infrastructure projects, among others.
He said alongside Macron in the Elysee palace in Paris that "French investors are welcome to share development opportunities in China".
"I also hope that Chinese companies can do better in France and make a greater contribution to its economic and social development", he added.
"We want our development to benefit others and that's the case with the BRI," he said.