A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said both countries remain opposed to forced regime change and urged support for UN envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan. Mr Putin is at the beginning of a three-day visit to China to bolster relations and attend a security summit. Both countries have twice blocked UN resolutions critical of Damascus. Beijing currently holds the UN Security Council’s rotating presidency, and Russia and China have long resisted pressure to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power amid ongoing unrest. The statement came as Syria announced that ambassadors from several Western states and Turkey are unwelcome (personae non gratae).
With the situation in Syria deteriorating, Russia and China are once again coming under pressure from other world leaders to help stop the conflict. They favour a peace plan put forward by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. But that now looks to be unravelling. Energy and foreign policy expected to dominate the agenda of Mr Putin’s trip to China. On the eve of the visit, Mr Putin told China’s state media that he wanted to increase bilateral trade to $100bn in 2015 and $200bn by 2020.