At a press conference on April 1, Chinese Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, in response to a question from a CGTN reporter, strongly defended the 5-point proposal that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar put forward on March 31 for securing peace and stability in Iran and the Gulf region.
Just two days earlier, on March 29, Pakistani Foreign Minister Dar met in a quadrilateral ministerial meeting with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkiye in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry stated on March 28, prior to the ministerial meeting, “Discussions are expected to focus on recent developments related to regional military escalation and ongoing diplomatic efforts to contain tensions and promote de-escalation, to establish what was to be done to stop the war,” reported the March 29 The Hill. This was combined with discussion on regional economic development. Egypt is a member of the BRICS; Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye are dialogue members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a key pillar of the Global South
From this meeting, Pakistani Foreign Minister Dar flew to a meeting in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, where the views of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkiye were transmitted and discussed. From this process, China and its close ally Pakistan—they are partners in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor—then formulated the excellent 5 points for ending the Iran war, and announced it to the world on March 31.
