The urgency of resolving conflicts in Southwest Asia through diplomacy, not force, was a central topic on the agenda of Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani’s Sept. 7-8 visit to Beijing. Al Thani held a series of meetings with senior Chinese officials which included separate meetings with his Chinese counterparts, Premier Li Qiang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. In both, as well as his meetings with leading Chinese business interests, joint investment projects and “scaling up” of economic cooperation were also on the agenda.

China is clearly not standing idly by, watching the regional crisis in Southwest Asia worsen. Both Li and Wang spoke of Qatar as an important strategic partner for China in the Middle East, and conveyed China’s support for Qatar’s efforts to resolve the Middle East crises through mediation. Li urged the two nations “to strengthen multilateral coordination and cooperation to promote the establishment of a more just and reasonable global governance system,” China Daily reported.

In his meeting with Al Thani, Wang discussed the four-point proposal for finding a way out of conflict which President Xi Jinping had put forward in his Sept. 1-2 visit to Egypt, South China Morning Post reported. Wang did not name any specific countries, but insisted that “pressure through the use of force is not the way forward. Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable path… China is willing … to strengthen communication and coordination with Qatar and other regional parties, support regional countries in taking their future and destiny into their own hands, restore regional peace and stability as soon as possible, and establish a fair and reasonable new regional security architecture,” he reiterated.

In both meetings, Sheikh Mohammed expressed Qatar’s appreciation for China’s “objective and impartial” position, and its efforts to advance peace and stability in the region. He reaffirmed Doha’s “support for all diplomatic efforts and endeavors aimed at a solution that ensures freedom of maritime navigation and paves the way for reaching a comprehensive agreement that achieves sustainable peace in the region,” the Qatari Foreign Ministry reported in a statement.

There already are extensive economic ties between the two nations, with Qatar supplying nearly one-third of China’s LNG needs, and China having been Qatar’s largest trading partner since 2020. Those ties are set to be expanded. According to China Daily's report, Li told Sheikh Mohammed that China welcomes more Qatari investment in China, and pledged greater investments by Chinese companies in Qatar, while Sheikh Mohammed told Li that Qatar “is willing to work with China to scale up exchanges at all levels and deepen practical cooperation in the economy and trade, high-and-new technologies and advanced manufacturing to jointly embrace the next golden decade of bilateral relations.”