Macron Endorses China’s Silk Road but Warns against ‘Hegemony’

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europe Monday to take part in China’s massive Silk Road infrastructure project but warned against“hegemony”, saying both sides should share the benefits, according to AFP.

Macron, on the first day of a state visit, also called on Europe and China to team up on curbing climate change in the face of the US decision to withdraw from the Paris accord.

“Our destinies are linked,”he said in a keynote speech on the future of Sino-French relations during a visit to the northern city of Xian, the starting point of the ancient Silk Road.

“The future needs France, Europe and China,” Macron said, adding he would travel to China “at least once a year”.

Macron started his three-day visit in Xian as a gesture to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s huge New Silk Road project, an initiative to connect Asia and Europe by road, rail and sea.

The $1 trillion infrastructure programme is billed as a modern revival of the ancient Silk Road that once carried fabrics, spices and a wealth of other goods in both directions.

Known in China as “One Belt, One Road”, the plan will see gleaming new road and rail networks built through Central Asia and beyond, and new maritime routes stretching through the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.

The project has spurred both interest and anxiety in many countries, with some in Europe seeing it as an example of Chinese expansionism.