French President Emmanuel Macron poses with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Chinese President Xi Jinping prior to their meeting at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, France, March 26, 2019

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday acknowledged historic rivalries between the European Union and China as he called on both to strengthen multilateralism.

"We would like to make progress renovating multilateralism. We have divergences, obviously in the history of humanity power does not go without rivalry, none of us are naive," Macron said after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

"But we respect China and are determined to have dialogue and cooperation," he added.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas and Richard Lough; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

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