On September 23, 2011, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo, who is in France for consultations, at the Elysee Palace.

Dai firstly conveyed cordial greetings of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Sarkozy, pointing to Hu's successful state visit to France last year. Recalling previous two meetings between the two heads of state this year, Dai said the meetings sustained a powerful momentum for Sino-French relations and that China was willing to better bilateral ties through joint effort with the French side.

"We hope the Cannes G20 Summit can release positive signals of confidence, solidarity, cooperation and mutual benefit," Dai said, voicing willingness to keep close communication and coordination with France to ensure a fruitful summit.

Dai said China had confidence in the euro currency and supported the integration of Europe despite present difficulties facing a group of European countries. China hoped European countries could work together in a common direction to tide over the hard times, Dai added.

Sarkozy asked Dai to convey his best wishes to President Hu and said France would like to work with China to promote smooth development of Sino-French cooperation.

As the president of 2011 G20 Summit, France as well looked forward to issuing a strong signal of international unity in hope of boosting confidence and promoting global economic growth, Sarkozy said. France attached great importance to the significant role of China in the G20, and would intensify cooperation with China to ensure a successful meeting, the French president added.

Commenting on the European debt issue, Sarkozy underlined that France saw great importance in determination to tackle the problem, vowing to take firm measures to overcome the debt crisis along with other EU countries.

On the same day, Dai also met with Xavier Musca, general secretary of the presidency and coordinator for G20 affairs.