China set to miss upcoming Syria meeting
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E-mail Xinhua, July 5, 2012
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Wednesday said the country's position on the upcoming "Friends of Syria" meeting has not changed, indicating it would continue with its policy of not attending the events.
Liu Weimin told a regular press briefing: "At this point, there is no information that China will attend the meeting."
His remarks came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia would not attend the meeting to be held in Paris this week.
China believes that the urgent task is to implement the outcome of the Geneva meeting, a ministerial-level meeting of the Action Group on Syria, according to Liu.
The Geneva meeting on June 30 gathered foreign ministers of the UN Security Council's five permanent members and Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, as well as representatives of the UN, the Arab League and the European Union.
China and Russia didn't attend Friends of Syria meetings held in Tunisia in February and Turkey in April.
