Syria FM says wants to ‘strengthen relations’ with China

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani expressed on Monday his government’s willingness to build a “strategic partnership” with China, a key backer of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad.

A foreign ministry statement said that al-Shaibani met with the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, at UN headquarters in New York, where he had been representing Syria at a session of the Security Council.

In the meeting with Beijing’s envoy, al-Shaibani said Syria’s new government was seeking to “strengthen relations with China” and that the two countries “will work together to build a long-term strategic partnership in the near future”, according to the statement.

This was not the first high-level meeting between the two governments since opposition forces toppled Assad in December, capping years of civil war. In late February, interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa met with the Chinese ambassador to Damascus.

Along with Russia and Iran, China was an important backer of the al-Assad government, including during the war, which broke out in 2011.