File photo of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov [Xinhua]Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will attend a crucial meeting of major powers in Germany on the Syria settlement, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Wednesday.
Wang heads to Munich on Thursday where he is expected to interact informally with his Russian and US counterparts, Sergey Lavrov and John Kerry.
The next ministerial meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) is scheduled for February 11 where international powers, including Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Iran will meet in a bid to resurrect stalled talks.
Beijing has urged participants in Syrian peace talks to show goodwill.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said peace talks were never going to be easy, but China had always believed they were the only way to ultimately resolve the Syria issue.
“We really hope that all parties involved in the peace talks can proactively take confidence-building measures, show goodwill, meet each other halfway and cooperate with the mediation efforts of the U.N. special envoy,” Lu said last week.
Russia’s Envoy to UN Vitaly Churkin said Friday that Moscow would put forward proposals on the advancement of the intra-Syrian reconciliation talks during the meeting.
China and Russia, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, have repeatedly called for a negotiated settlement to the Syrian crisis.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura last week announced a three-week pause in the Geneva talks, the first attempt to negotiate an end to Syria’s war in two years.
Russia has proposed its plan to the United States on the Syrian crisis settlement, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said on Tuesday.
“We have proposed an absolutely specific scheme during our contacts with Washington, which they [US authorities] have now started considering. They seem to be realizing that refusing to cooperate is counterproductive. But we have yet to achieve actual results,” Lavrov told a Russian daily.
Since 2011, Syria has been mired in a civil war; the country’s government forces are fighting numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations, including Daesh (Islamic State) and the al-Nusra Front. The violence has killed 250,000 people and already driven 11 million from their homes.
The UN Security Council is scheduled to hold closed-door discussions on Wednesday on the humanitarian situation in Syria.
TBP and Agencies