In Beijing on Wednesday Chinese Vice-President Zeng Qinghong met with Mohammed Saeid
Bekheitan, assistant secretary of Regional Leadership of the Syrian
Baath Arab Socialist Party.
Bekheitan, a guest of the Communist Party of China (CPC), is
visiting China from September 10-15. He's also president of the
Syria-China friendship association.
Highlighting sound cooperation between China and Syria since the
two countries established diplomatic ties 50 years ago, Zeng said
joint efforts would be made to better bilateral relations. He's
also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of
the CPC Central Committee.
Zeng expressed his appreciation of Syria's consistent support
for China on Taiwan and human rights issues and hoped the CPC and
the Syrian ruling party, which forged party relations in 1986,
could deepen their exchanges to facilitate nation-to-nation
relations.
Bekheitan expressed his appreciation for the role China had
played in maintaining peace and justice in the world saying the
Syrian government would remain with the one-China policy and work
with the Chinese to further cooperation in such fields as trade and
culture.
In an exclusive interview on Wednesday he also expressed regret
and concern over the Chinese diplomat injured in Syria and said he
hoped the official would recover soon. "I've no detailed
information about the incident but the Chinese embassy is located
very close to the US embassy," he said.
Bekheitan added that he'd contacted officials in Syria on
Tuesday about the injured diplomat and his condition was said to be
satisfactory.
(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2006)