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‘China’s position is clear’: Foreign Minister Wang Yi pushes for one UN voice on Gaza ceasefire
- ‘Comprehensive ceasefire’ needed to ‘avoid further humanitarian disasters’, Wang tells UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York
- Talks with UN chief, Brazilian and Malaysian counterparts come with Wang due to chair Security Council meeting on Israel-Gaza conflict
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China is pushing hard for a united global voice seeking a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire in Gaza before its presidency of the UN Security Council ends this week.
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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for an extended truce and humanitarian aid to Gaza as he met his Brazilian and Malaysian counterparts as well as the United Nations head on Tuesday, a day ahead of chairing a high-level council meeting.
“China’s position is clear … a comprehensive ceasefire should be realised, so as to avoid further humanitarian disasters,” Wang told Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, at the world body’s headquarters in New York.
Wang also hailed Resolution 2712 – the council’s first resolution for a Gaza ceasefire on humanitarian grounds, adopted earlier this month – as the first step in promoting a ceasefire and a good start to resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through political means.
China and some Arab and Islamic countries hope the Security Council will be able to speak in “a unified voice” on the conflict, Wang told Guterres.
Last week, Beijing hosted foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim-majority countries trying to rally the international community to end hostilities.
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