Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday offered to help revive Syria’s economy and fight internal unrest in the war-torn country, even as China advances its strategic interests in a region where it is already aligned with the Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“Faced with an unstable and uncertain international environment, China is willing to continue working with Syria in the interests of friendly cooperation and safeguarding international fairness and justice,” the Chinese president told his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Hangzhou.
“China supports Syria’s opposition to foreign interference, unilateral attacks… and will support Syria’s reconstruction,” he added, according to Chinese state media.
The Syrian leader is in China to advance efforts to end more than a decade of diplomatic isolation under Western sanctions and to strengthen trade ties with the world’s second-largest economy at a time when Syria desperately needs investment foreign.
Western sanctions on Syria have been steadily tightened since the early days of a civil war that began in 2011 with a crackdown on protests and ended with the killing of hundreds of thousands of people and the displacement of millions. Assad’s government, backed by Russia and Iran, now controls most of the territory and in recent years has re-established ties with Arab neighbors who once supported his opponents.
Beijing has stepped up its diplomatic engagement with the Middle East in recent years and in March helped broker a surprise deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran to end a seven-year diplomatic rift.
Citing flagship initiatives aimed at building infrastructure along the ancient Silk Road and promoting China’s approach to global security, Xi extended support to Syria to improve its relations with other Arab countries.
“China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Syria through the Belt and Road Initiative… to make positive contributions to regional and global peace and development,” Xi said.
But analysts say there will likely be a limit to the extent to which Beijing can help Damascus beyond regaining its regional status.
“I don’t think China is committed enough to Syria to push for the lifting of multilateral sanctions,” said Matteo Legrenzi, a professor of international relations at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Source: Terra
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