On April 27, 2016, Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Beijing with Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki of Palestine, who was in China to attend the 5th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

Riyad Al-Maliki highly appreciated President Xi Jinping’s support for the just cause of Palestine during his visit to the headquarters of the League of Arab States this January. Extending gratitude to China for its strong support in Palestine’s capacity building, Riyad Al-Maliki expressed the expectation for China to play a greater role in the Middle East affairs. Riyad Al-Maliki expressed that the international peace-promotion mechanisms for the Palestinian issue should be innovated in reference to experience from the solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. It is hoped that China will play a positive role to this end.

Wang Yi stated that China has been paying great attention to the Palestinian issue all the time, and has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their national legitimate rights. Under the current regional circumstances, the Palestinian issue should neither be neglected nor forgotten. The key to breaking the Palestine-Israel stalemate is to activate peace talks, which should become the direction for joint efforts from the international community. China supports all efforts that are conducive to easing the situation and realizing peaceful co-existence of the two countries, and supports the international community to explore and discuss the innovation on the international peace-promotion mechanisms.