French president to pay state-visit to China April 25-26

French President Francois Hollande will pay a State-visit to China on April 25-26, his first State visit to the country since he was elected in May 2012, official sources said Monday. Hollande will meet with the new Chinese leadership during his visit and will hold talks notably with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who extended the invitation to the French leader. The final details for the visit were worked out last weekend when French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius visited Beijing for talks at the highest level. The Chinese trip is of high strategic and economic importance for France, especially on the commercial and trade level, where French firms have important interest and as China is a key market for French products, especially high-tech items such as Airbus and the TGV high-speed train, not to mention seeking to supply China with nuclear power plants it will sorely need in the coming decades. But China is also important politically, given particularly the crises in Syria and with Iran, two areas where Beijing plays a prominent role inside and outside the United Nations. The North Korean nuclear tensions are also an area where China has a major card to play in calming regional tensions.