France's top diplomat visits Beijing for Middle East negotiations

France’s top diplomat visits Beijing for Middle East negotiations

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France’s top diplomat Catherine Colonna met Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Friday as part of a short visit to deepen ties between the two countries on the Israel-Hamas war.

Corona’s meeting in Beijing came on the same day that a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect, with the militant group planning to release the first group of 13 hostages later on Friday, bringing the total to 50 in four days. I plan to release it.

“For us, we have to free all the hostages. Not just 50, but all of them,” Colonna said in a briefing with French journalists.

Approximately 240 people were abducted during a cross-border attack by Hamas on Israel last month.

Paris said the Middle East conflict would be high on the agenda for Colonna and the Chinese side.

A French diplomatic source said this week that China is “growing in importance in the region” due to its “strong ties” with Iran.

“Our first expectation from China in this conflict is to cooperate with its efforts and ours to ensure that regional escalation is avoided,” they added.

Beijing is aiming to play a bigger role in the region this year, promoting historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran and sending a special envoy to the region to encourage a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Welcomed by Premier Li under the chandeliers of Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Friday morning, Colonna said China and France share “global responsibilities” as permanent members of the Security Council. Ta.

Both sides “must work to find answers to major challenges, especially climate, biodiversity and any other challenge that can reduce tensions in the world,” she said.

Meanwhile, Premier Li pointed to “positive trends in China-France cooperation in all aspects.”

“The close cooperation between China and France has also injected a lot of positive energy and brought more certainty to today’s uncertain world,” he added.

Colonna then met with his counterpart Wang at Peking University in the afternoon, resuming high-level Sino-French dialogue on other areas of cooperation.

The series of talks, which began in 2014 after being put on hold amid the pandemic, have focused on academic, scientific, cultural and sporting exchanges, as well as tourism and gender equality issues.

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Source: guardian.ng

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