Jordan, China ‘keen on better ties, regional peace’

AMMAN — Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Wednesday stressed both countries' keenness to develop Jordanian-Chinese ties.

In a telephone conversation, they also went over regional developments, mainly those related to the Palestinian issue, Syrian crisis and international efforts in the war against terrorism, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

They referred to the continuous contacts between His Majesty King Abdullah and Chinese President Xi Jinping to develop relations between the two countries, which celebrated in 2017 the 40th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties.

Safadi expressed the Kingdom's willingness to increase cooperation with China and open new scopes of economic and commercial partnerships.

He also reiterated that Jordan respects the "unified China" principle, and the Kingdom's support for the "One Belt, One Road Initiative".

The Chinese minister said that his country highly appreciates its ties with Jordan and is keen on building on the momentum through cooperation projects in all fields.

Safadi praised the Chinese stance that supports Palestinian rights and calls for achieving a comprehensive peace in the region according to the two-state solution, which, he described as the only formula to realise peace and stability.

He also stressed that there is no legal impact whatsoever for the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, noting that Arab countries agreed to work on limiting its repercussions through a comprehensive worldwide drive to urge the international community to recognise the Palestinian state within the pre-1967 lines.

Safadi acquainted his Chinese counterpart with the Jordanian diplomatic efforts to ensure that Jerusalem remains a final status issue that can only be determined through direct negotiations with international legitimacy resolutions as the terms of reference, emphasising that any unilateral decisions concerning the city are null and void.

The Chinese top diplomat stressed his country’s unaltered stance that supports Palestinian rights, the two-state solution and gathering international efforts to end the conflict.

They also reviewed the latest updates in the war on terrorism and the Syrian crisis, with both officials stressing the need to forge a political solution to the crisis in line with Security Council Resolution 2254 and in a way that preserves the unity of the country and meets the aspirations of the Syrian people.

Safadi accepted his counterpart’s invitation to participate in the Sino-Arab forum that is scheduled to be held in Beijing in mid-2018.