The revelation was made on France 24 by TIME magazine political correspondent Vivienne Walt. She claimed that the absence of the UK from key talks with China’s Xi Jinping is “weighing on the minds” of French president Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Ms Walt said: “Just to pick up on our Brexit conversation – yes, you have Juncker, Merkel, Macron.

“But you don’t have the British there.

“And I think that is totally weighing on their minds.

“In fact I know from my interviews, it is weighing on the minds of French officials, certainly.

“They are way behind on all sorts of things.”

Her co-panellist added: “And Macron and Merkel look so powerless.”

Europe’s top leaders told President Xi Jinping last Tuesday they wanted a fairer trading relationship with China, signalling an openness to engage with Beijing’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure project if it meant more access to the Chinese market.

The Europe Union, the world’s largest trading zone, has become increasingly frustrated by what it sees as the slow pace of economic opening in China, even after years of granting China almost unfettered access to EU markets for trade and investment.

As he seeks to forge a common European front to challenge China’s rise, French President Emmanuel Macron invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to talks with Xi in Paris.

“We, as Europeans, want to play an active part (in the Belt and Road project),” Merkel said after the talks. “That must lead to certain reciprocity, and we are still wrangling over that a bit.”

Juncker, who will host an EU-China summit in Brussels next month, reinforced EU calls for better trade reciprocity so that “European businesses could have the same degree of access to the Chinese market as Chinese businesses have in Europe.”

The Belt and Road Initiative, championed by Xi, aims to link China by sea and land with Southeast and Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network along the lines of the old Silk Road.

France says any Silk Road-style cooperation must work in both directions. Even as he presided over the signing of trade deals with China worth tens of billions of dollars this week, including an Airbus deal to sell 300 aircraft to China’s state buying agency, Macron pushed back against Beijing’s rights record and ambitions.

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