Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Right after German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrapped up her eighth visit to China, French President Francois Hollande embarked on a Chinese tour on Monday. Like Berlin, Paris bears in mind that it needs this high-level visit given Hollande's absence in Beijing's Victory Day parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Besides, France is also facing a series of thorny problems both at home and abroad, including crises in Europe and the Middle East. It is thus necessary to have an exchange of views with China.

More importantly, unlike Germany, Hollande came to win China's support for the forthcoming climate change conference in Paris. He wants to secure attendance of Chinese leader in the Paris climate change summit and a strong joint statement from Beijing, in order to ensure the Paris conference with comprehensive, effective achievements.

This time, he did win a lot of support from China with China's acceptance of a five-year monitoring review process to assess the compliance progress in implementing commitments from national governments. 

The climate conference is one of the focal points of this year's French diplomacy. For quite some time, tackling climate change has always been a significant diplomatic agenda in Europe, in which the European countries can play a leadership role.

Back to 2009 in the climate summit in Copenhagen, European countries had a high hope of a breakthrough in the climate change negotiation. Yet the time was not ripe, most of the countries were not ready, and Europe was pushing for an unrealistic objective.

Now is different, a large number of nations are having a more pragmatic thinking over the climate issue. Relevant countries, including China, are taking an increasingly positive stance. The gap between different nations over the topic is gradually narrowing. Meanwhile, France also believes that the summit will be a test to the country's diplomacy as a major global power.

Support from China is therefore of great importance to France. If Paris is expecting any kind of achievement, the active participation of China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas worldwide, is indispensable.

Along with the current slowdown in China's economy, the country has also witnessed some preliminary successes in energy saving and emission reduction, and China's economic transformation is heading toward cleaner energy. China's capability in dealing with climate change is now universally recognized. Not only that, Xi has announced $3 billion fund to help developing countries combat climate change. This is also what the Western countries want to see - more financial support and demonstrative effects.

So far, the Beijing-Paris ties are developing relatively smooth and steady. But comparatively speaking, it has lacked highlights. France is shying away from claiming that it wants to be China's best partner in the West as the UK has said, nor can it call itself China's largest trading partner in the EU like Germany.

Hollande came right after Xi visited Britain and Merkel visited China. His schedule appears to stress France's own agenda on the climate summit so as to avoid the image of following London and Berlin in developing relationships with China. 

But it should take more aspects of the bilateral relationship into account. In wider collaboration with China, what results can be achieved? Compared with other nations in Europe and the West, what are the comparative advantages of France when it comes to cooperating with Beijing? Both sides need to do more.

Take the China-initiated "One Belt, One Road" project. It has received positive response from France. The two countries have made an effort to join hands in exploring third-party markets under the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, capitalizing on their technological and financial strength in the global economy.

The project of building the first new nuclear power plant in the UK in a generation is one of the early fruits of the deal between Chinese and French companies.

In light of this, it can be argued that a new round of Sino-French cooperation has already started. Now it's up to both to see what specific joint programs or what new areas of collaboration can be further developed.

The author is dean of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn