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.
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A foreign ministry statement said that Shaibani met 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, 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 Islamist-led forces toppled Assad in December, capping years of civil war. In late February, interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa met the Chinese ambassador to Damascus.
Along with Russia and Iran, China was an important backer of the Assad government, including during the war, which broke out in 2011.
Also on Monday, Islamic State said it killed five Kurdish fighters in an attack in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor, according to the militant group’s news agency.