PARIS, April 1, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron will next week warn Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that any decision by Beijing to back Russia militarily in Moscow's war on Ukraine would be disastrous, the French presidency said.

"If China took this disastrous decision (to back Moscow militarily) it would have a major strategic effect on the conflict," an advisor to Macron, asking not to be named, told reporters ahead of the president's visit to China next week.