Bashar Al-Assad in China for his first visit since 2004

Isolated on the international scene, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad began an official visit to China on Thursday, September 21, with the hope, according to Beijing, of taking bilateral relations to “a new level.”

The Syrian leader is seeking funds to rebuild the country after a bloody civil war that led to massive destruction of infrastructure and wiped out several sectors of the economy, while Syria is subject to heavy international sanctions. The moment is all the more important after the demonstrations which broke out in Soueïda, in the south of the country, to call for the departure of Bashar Al-Assad.

Since 2011, Syrian government forces have retaken most of the territory thanks to crucial military aid from allies Russia and Iran, but the country needs investment for reconstruction.

“We believe that President Bashar Al-Assad’s visit will strengthen mutual political trust and cooperation in various sectors between the two countries, taking bilateral ties to a new level,” said the spokesperson of the Ministry of Affairs Chinese foreign ministers, Mao Ning, during a press briefing. “Since the establishment of diplomatic relations sixty-seven years ago, relations [between Syria and China] have enjoyed healthy and stable development,” Ning noted.

Return to the international scene

Bashar Al-Assad’s last trip to China dates back to 2004 and it was the first visit by a Syrian leader since the establishment of diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1956. China is one of President Assad’s allies and notably provided its support to the United Nations (UN) Security Council, regularly abstaining from the vote on resolutions antagonizing the Syrian government.

This visit comes in the context of the Syrian leader’s return to the international scene. Earlier this year, his regime began a rapprochement with many Arab countries, after years of isolation following the civil war, which broke out in 2011. This attempt to normalize relations was sealed in May by the return of Damascus within the Arab League, and the participation of the Syrian president in a summit in Saudi Arabia.

Beijing plays a growing role in the Middle East, like the spectacular rapprochement it enabled at the start of the year between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

China, very active in a historically strategic region for the United States, is promoting its ambitious “new silk roads” project, which consists of massive investments in infrastructure to improve commercial links between Asia, Europe and Africa. Syria joined the project in January 2022 and hoped for significant economic benefits.