On July 21, 2008, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with visiting Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

During the talks, Yang said the two countries enjoy a traditional friendship. He highly appreciated Syria's firm support to China on the issues concerning Taiwan, Tibet and the Beijing Olympic Games. Yang expressed his gratitude on the friendly assistance offered by Syria after the Sichuan earthquake in May. China is ready to make joint efforts with Syria to continue pushing forward bilateral friendly cooperative relations, he added.

China was paying close attention to the Middle East situation, said Yang.  He said China hoped the parties concerned would properly settle the conflict between Palestine and Israel, the disagreements between Lebanon and Israel and the Syria-Israel dispute in accordance with relevant UN resolutions and the principle of "land for peace". He said the interests of all parties should be given consideration to enforce smoothly the agreements that have already been made and keep them effective. The concerned parties should grasp exactly the relations among the hot issues of the Middle East and support the international organizations such as the United Nations to play important roles. Yang emphasized that under the current phase it's especially needed to create an atmosphere of communication and cooperation to ease the situation.

Mekdad said Syria paid high attention to the relationship with China and hoped for the two countries to maintain friendly cooperation in all fields.  He said Syria appreciated China's position on upholding justice and supporting the Middle East peace process and hoped the country would play a more important role in this regard.