IRIA News

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad arrived in China on September 21, 2023, for his first-ever trip to the country in almost two decades. Assad visited China to attend the opening ceremony of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, along with other foreign attendees.

Assad’s trip to China is another step for Beijing towards increasing its reach in the Middle East. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Assad’s visit would “further deepen political mutual trust and cooperation in various fields between the two countries and push bilateral relations to a new level.”

Assad’s office said earlier that the Syrian leader was invited by Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend the opening ceremony of the Asian Games 2023.

China has backed Assad during the 12-year-long civil in Syria. China has used its veto power in the United Nations on eight different occasions to stop a resolution against Assad’s regime in Syria, with the latest one in 2020. Now when his government is taking control of the oil-rich Middle Eastern state, Beijing is deepening its relations further with his regime.

Assad’s last and only visit to China was in 2004, a year after the U.S.-led invasion of neighboring Iraq and at a time when Washington was putting pressure on Syria.

Meeting with Xi Jinping

On the second day of his trip, the Syrian President met Chinese President Xi Jinping at a state guest house near the West Lake, a scenic tourist destination in Hangzhou that has inspired Chinese painters for centuries.

According to a readout released by the Chinese state-owned media, Xi told Assad “Today, we will jointly announce the establishment of the China-Syria strategic partnership, which will become an important milestone in the history of bilateral relations.”

“Faced with an international situation full of instability and uncertainty, China is willing to continue to work together with Syria, firmly support each other, promote friendly cooperation, and jointly defend international fairness and justice,” he added.

Syrian sources quoted Assad as he thanked China for being with Syrians “during the crisis and suffering”. The Arab leader’s visit to China is a bid to end more than a decade of diplomatic isolation under Western sanctions and boost commercial ties with the world’s second-largest economy.

Acceptance of Assad’s regime

Since Damascus’s evident victory in Syria’s decade-long internal war, several regional actors have been trying to mend their relations with the Assad regime, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Earlier this year, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited Saudi Arabia on an invitation from his counterpart in Jeddah. This was the first time that a Syrian foreign minister met a Saudi counterpart since 2011.

In March 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Bashar Al Assad in Moscow. Russia has been playing a major role in brokering a deal between Turkey and Syria as the civil war comes to an end.

China to help reconstruction in Syria

China has offered to help reconstruct war-torn Syria with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announcing the formation of a strategic partnership.

China’s foreign ministry said that the two countries have reached a “new level” of cooperation. “China and Syria have a traditional and deep friendship,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.  “We believe that President Bashar Al-Assad’s visit will further deepen mutual political trust and cooperation in various fields between the two countries,” she added.

Asian Games diplomacy

Several world leaders have arrived in Hangzhou to attend the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games. The King of Cambodia, the crown prince of Kuwait, and the prime ministers of Nepal, East Timor, and South Korea are among the notable figures to attend the opening ceremony.

After finishing his meeting with the Syrian president, Xi also met with Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah at the same venue. China’s President Xi said that he would work with him to take bilateral relations between the two countries to a new level.