Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Egyptian counterpart Abdulfattah Al-Sisi on Wednesday stressed that it is essential to stop military operations in the Gaza Strip and to thwart conflict spillover.
This came during official talks between the leaders of China and Egypt in Beijing, during which they exchanged views on the Israeli occupation attacks on Gaza, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Xi pointed out that the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli occupation conflict has caused a large number of innocent Palestinian civilian casualties and the extremely grim humanitarian situation in Gaza, which China deeply regrets, the report said.
“It is imperative to immediately cease the fire and cease the fighting, so as to prevent the spillover of the conflict from undermining peace and stability in the region and preventing a more serious humanitarian crisis,” Xi was quoted as telling Al-Sisi.
“The two-state solution is the fundamental solution to the Palestinian issue. China firmly supports Palestine
becoming a full member of the UN,” Xi stressed.
“China appreciates the important role played by Egypt in de-escalating the situation and carrying out humanitarian relief, and stands ready to work with Egypt to continue to provide assistance to the people of Gaza to the best of its ability and promote an early, comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue,” the Chinese leader noted.
Al-Sisi said Egypt highly appreciates China’s commitment to justice on the Palestinian issue, and is willing to maintain close communication with China to ease tension in Gaza as soon as possible, according to the report.
Al-Sisi is on a state-visit to China to attend the opening ceremony of the 10th Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum on Thursday. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Egypt comprehensive strategic partnership, Xi said, adding that China-Egypt relations have become a vivid illustration of China’s solidarity, coordination, and m
utually-beneficial win-win cooperation with Arab, African, Islamic and developing countries.
“China is ready to work with Egypt to tap the potential of cooperation in traditional areas such as infrastructure, industry, electricity and agriculture, explore cooperation in emerging areas such as health care, information and communications, and renewable energy, deepen economic, trade and investment cooperation, and encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest and do business in Egypt,” said Xi.
Xi also said China supports Egypt in playing a greater role in international and regional affairs, and stands ready to further strengthen coordination and cooperation with Egypt on multilateral platforms such as the UN, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS cooperation mechanism.
For his part, Al-Sisi said Egypt looks forward to further deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership with China and working to promote regional peace and stability.
He added that Egypt welcomes more Chinese enterprises to
invest and cooperate in Egypt to help Egypt’s manufacturing development and industrialization process.
After the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of a number of bilateral cooperation documents in the fields of promoting the Belt and Road Initiative, scientific and technological innovation, investment and economic cooperation, and quarantine.
Source: Kuwait News Agency