2023-09-22 16:58:42
Image source: Syrian Presidency
Comment on the photo,
Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma upon his arrival in China
1 hour ago
In a step added to attempts to break diplomatic isolation from the Syrian government, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will participate in the opening of the Asian Games on Saturday.
Al-Assad met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou in the east of the country, where the games are being held, in the Syrian president’s first visit to the allied country since 2004.
The Syrian official news agency, SANA, said that Al-Assad’s visit to Hangzhou included the signing of three cooperation documents, including a memorandum of understanding related to cooperation within the framework of the “Belt and Road” initiative.
The “Belt and Road” initiative, or “New Silk Roads”, is a huge Chinese project to establish railways and infrastructure linking China to Asia, Europe and Africa, and it will pass through several countries. Syria joined this initiative last year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced during his meeting with his Syrian counterpart on Friday that China and Syria had established a “strategic partnership.”
In Chinese diplomacy, the phrase “strategic partnership” means strengthening coordination in regional and international affairs, including in the military field.
Breaking diplomatic isolation
China is the third non-Arab country that Assad has visited since the outbreak of the devastating armed conflict in his country in 2011.
Al-Assad made an official visit to Russia last March, where he was received with great hospitality, which was preceded by meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin that did not fall within the framework of state visits.
In April 2022, Al-Assad met with the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in a visit to Iran that was described as “rare.”
Russia and Iran are the two most prominent allies of the Syrian regime, and they played a pivotal military role during the war.
Despite its alliance with Assad, China did not participate in supporting him militarily, but it used the right of criticism and veto to impede the passage of resolutions once morest him in the Security Council.
Also, this year witnessed Damascus resuming its relationship with several Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, regaining its seat in the League of Arab States, and then Assad’s participation in the Arab Summit in Jeddah in May for the first time in more than 12 years.
On the other hand, China, through its diplomatic channels, played an important role in resuming relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran last March, and this was recorded as a political victory for Beijing, in the face of the American role.
Image source: Syrian Presidency
Comment on the photo,
During the meeting between the two presidents
Analysts believe that China’s reception of the Syrian President during the opening of the Asian Games is an important step in breaking Assad’s diplomacy, following years of devastating conflict.
This falls within a series of visits that China witnessed during the current year, by presidents isolated internationally by the United States. Assad was preceded by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Iranian Ibrahim Raisi, and Belarusian Alexander Lukashenko.
The Kremlin announced on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will also visit China in October, at a time when Moscow faces Western anger over its war in Ukraine.
Syrian political analyst Osama Dannoura told Agence France-Presse: “This visit represents a break in an important scope of diplomatic isolation and political blockade imposed on Syria.”
Researcher Lina Al-Khatib, director of the Middle East Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, said that Al-Assad is trying, through his visit to China, to deliver a message regarding the beginning of the “international legitimization” of his regime.
But some analysts believe that Beijing may not be “committed enough to push for the lifting of sanctions on the Syrian regime,” according to Matteo Legrenzi, a professor of international relations at the University of Venice who spoke to Archyde.com.
Legrenzi believes that “the Chinese role in the Middle East tends to play a role without siding with one party or the other.”
The Chinese official news agency, Xinhua, published an interview with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on September 21, in which he said that the United States “plundered oil, natural gas, and other resources from Syria, causing losses worth $115 billion.”
For its part, the Chinese newspaper “Global Times” published a comment by researcher Tian Wenlin from the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China, in which he said that the United States played the largest role in the deterioration of “Syria from stability to chaos.” Contrast this with China, which constantly calls for peaceful dialogue and opposes “foreign interference.”
A boost to the collapsed Syrian economy
Image source: AFP
Comment on the photo,
The Suwayda Governorate in southern Syria has been witnessing protests for weeks
Popular protests have escalated during the recent period in a number of Syrian regions, concentrated in the Suwayda Governorate in the south of the country, under economic and livelihood slogans, along with demands to overthrow the regime.
The regime is also facing an unprecedented economic crisis internally, following years of war that destroyed the country, the decline in the value of the Syrian pound, the collapse of the value of salaries, and the need to rebuild infrastructure.
Analysts believe that Al-Assad’s visit to China comes within the framework of the search for serious financial support to revive the economy in Syria, in light of the sanctions.
Syria’s accession to the Belt and Road Initiative is an indication of the possibility of implementing vital Chinese projects, especially since it is located between Iraq and Turkey, making it a vital corridor for land routes towards Europe.
Iraq is a major exporter of oil to China, and Turkey is the end of the economic corridors extending through Asia to Europe.
The Syrian President’s visit to China comes following the announcement of the economic corridor from India to Europe via the Gulf, the port of Haifa and Greece, all the way to Germany, at a time when Beijing seeks to strengthen its presence in the Middle East and Africa.
But any Chinese projects in Syria will collide with US sanctions and the Caesar Act.
Some analysts doubt that the strategic and economic partnerships that may be announced will be implemented on the ground, given the unstable security situation in Syria and the deteriorating economic situation.
Chinese companies had invested huge sums of money in projects inside Syria before the outbreak of the war. Sinopec and Sinochem, along with the China National Petroleum Corporation, invested $3 billion in Syria, driven by Beijing’s call to acquire global assets in the field of… Oil and gas, according to Archyde.com.
These investments did not last during the war, but political analyst Osama Dannoura told Agence France-Presse that “China has the ability to complete infrastructure reconstruction in residential and civilian areas with exceptional speed.”
China’s ambassador to Syria, Shi Hongwei, announced last August that “Chinese companies are actively involved in reconstruction projects in Syria.”
Among those projects that the ambassador spoke regarding, and which were reported by Syrian government media, is, for example, a project to build a cement factory with a daily capacity of 6,500 tons in the Abu Shamat area in the Damascus countryside, in addition to a photovoltaic station with a capacity of 300 megawatts in the Wadi al-Rabi’ area.
1695406510
#AlAssads #visit #China #stop #Silk #Road
