{"id":1078,"date":"2016-08-17T13:01:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T13:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2016-08-17T13:01:31","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T13:01:31","slug":"chinese-military-to-provide-aid-and-training-assistance-to-syrian-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/2016\/08\/17\/chinese-military-to-provide-aid-and-training-assistance-to-syrian-government\/","title":{"rendered":"CHINESE MILITARY TO PROVIDE \u201cAID AND TRAINING ASSISTANCE\u201d TO SYRIAN GOVERNMENT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SYRIAN<\/a><\/p>\n

Sourced : South China Morning Post<\/p>\n

The Chinese military will provide aid and training to the Syrian government under a deal reached between a Beijing envoy and Syria\u2019s defence minister in Damascus on Sunday.<\/p>\n

It is another step in Beijing\u2019s engagement in the Middle East after China named Xie Xiao\u00adyan, former ambassador to Iran, as its special envoy to Syria in March.<\/p>\n

The Chinese military delegation to Syria \u2013 headed by Rear Admiral Guan Youfei, director of international cooperation at the Central Military Commission \u2013 met Syrian Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Lieutenant General Fahd Jasim al-Furayj, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey reached consensus on improving personnel training, and the Chinese military offering humanitarian aid to Syria,\u201d the report said without elaborating.<\/p>\n

Guan said the Chinese military was willing to continue exchanges and cooperation with the Syrian military. Guan also met Lieutenant General Sergei Chvarkov, chief of Russia\u2019s reconciliation centre in Syria, on Monday.<\/p>\n

China has sided with Russia on United Nations Security Council resolutions on Syria but Beijing has not been as directly involved in the conflict as Moscow, which has helped the Syrian government conduct air strikes on rebels.<\/p>\n

Although no details were given, the military\u2019s \u201chumanitarian aid\u201d was most likely to be medical supplies, observers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina\u2019s military involvement will still be low profile and limited,\u201d Shanghai International Studies University Middle East affairs specialist Liu Zhongmin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is still to promote a political and peaceful settlement [in Syria].\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said he will invite representatives of the Syrian government and opposition for talks to promote a political settlement.<\/p>\n

Since President Xi Jinping\u2019s visit to the Middle East at the start of the year, China has stepped up its presence to promote stability in the region. This includes a trip by Xie to Syria in April to meet the government as well as some representatives of the opposition.<\/p>\n

The battle for Syria\u2019s second-biggest city, Aleppo, has entered a decisive phase and the Syrian government appears to have considerable advantages over the rebels. The overall international situation is also in Syria\u2019s favour, with Turkey moving closer to Russia.<\/p>\n

Wang Jian, a Middle East specialist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China\u2019s help to Syria would give China a bigger say in both a solution to the Syrian issue and in the Middle East. \u201cAnd that would be good for better protection of China\u2019s interests in this region,\u201d Wang said. \u201cTo become a so-called responsible world power, more proactive gestures are needed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sourced : South China Morning Post The Chinese military will provide aid and training to the Syrian government under a deal reached between a Beijing envoy and Syria\u2019s defence minister in Damascus on Sunday. It is another step in Beijing\u2019s engagement in the Middle East after China named Xie Xiao\u00adyan, former ambassador to Iran, as… Continue reading CHINESE MILITARY TO PROVIDE \u201cAID AND TRAINING ASSISTANCE\u201d TO SYRIAN GOVERNMENT<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[536,80,252,27,15],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conflict","tag-aleppo","tag-china","tag-middle-east","tag-russia","tag-syria","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1079,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}