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Chinese President Hu Jintao
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners January 8, 2007 |
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert turns his focus away from the Middle East this week, heading to China to boost his country's booming trade ties with the Asian economic giant.
The visit, marking the 15-year anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations, is expected to steer clear of Mideast issues, focusing instead on economic, technological and military links.
Despite claims that the talks will not touch on Mideast affairs, China's president, Hu Jintao, called on Iran to make a serious response to the UN resolution imposing sanctions on Iran's nuclear program just one day before Olmert's arrival, DEBKAfile reports.
Hu also added that the Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved through diplomatic negotiation with the aim of achieving a long-term solution.
The Israel-China meeting will have special personal meaning for Olmert, whose parents took refuge in China in the early 20th century after fleeing persecution in Russia.
Israel and China generally enjoy good relations, though ties have been strained at times. Israel infuriated China in 2000 when U.S. pressure forced Israel to cancel the sale of sophisticated PHALCON reconnaissance aircraft to Beijing. More recently, Israel aborted a deal to upgrade drone aircraft sold to China, also under U.S. pressure.
China, meanwhile, upset Israel last year by inviting the foreign minister from the Hamas-led Palestinian government, boycotted by Israel and the West, to attend a conference in Beijing. Experts, however, don't expect these disputes to cloud the visit.
During the three-day visit beginning Monday, Olmert is scheduled to meet with President Hu Jintao and top ministers and businessmen.
China has shown interest in raising its profile in the Middle East, recently announcing it will increase its peacekeeping force in Lebanon to 1,000, making it one of the largest contributors to the multinational force dispatched in the aftermath of last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. On July 25, a Chinese peacekeeper in a U.N. outpost in Lebanon was killed by an Israeli airstrike.
Yet it is unlikely to exert major diplomatic pressure on Olmert, said Yitzhak Shichor, an expert in Sino-Israeli relations at the University of Haifa.
"The Chinese don't have an impact on the Arab-Israeli peace process. The Chinese are marginal here," he said. "If economically they are a giant, then politically they are still a dwarf."
Several sticky issues are on the agenda. Miri Eisin, Olmert's spokeswoman, said the Iranian nuclear program would come up in talks, though it will not top the agenda.
Israel accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons and has supported efforts by the U.N. Security Council, where China is a permanent member, to impose sanctions against the Iranians. Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
China is a major arms supplier to Iran, and Israel alleges that Chinese-made weapons were used by Hezbollah guerrillas in last summer's Lebanon war, including an anti-ship cruise missile that was fired at an Israeli vessel on July 14, killing four servicemen.
But Eisin said the visit will focus mainly on "bilateral issues," such as business, cultural and economic ties. China is Israel's third largest trading partner, following the United States and Germany.
"They have cooperation in economic, technological and even military technology fields," said Shi Yinhhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. "The visit of Israel's prime minister to Beijing will most likely focus mainly on the further development of Sino-Israeli relations."
Israeli exports to China jumped 31 percent to $740 million in the first 11 months of last year, compared to $565 million in the year-earlier period, according to the federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce. Imports also rose 29 percent to $2.2 billion from $1.7 billion the previous year.
Devorah Fuchs, director of the federation's international trade division, said the trade included electronic devices, medical and optical tools, and metal and plastic products.
"China is a very important partner, definitely the most important in the Far East," she said.
The visit will be the third by an Israeli prime minister, following trips by Yitzhak Rabin in 1993 and Benjamin Netanyahu in 1998.
In 2004, then-Trade Minister Olmert led a 200-member trade delegation on a visit to China. He made a stop in Harbin, the northeastern city where his family lived before his parents emigrated to what is now Israel, and which was home to thousands of Jews fleeing Czarist Russia in the early 20th century. Olmert, who was born in Israel, visited his grandfather's grave in Harbin, fulfilling a lifelong wish.
Ahead of this visit, Olmert told the official Xinhua news agency that he had a spiritual tie with China.
"China is the country which hosted my parents. They studied in China. They spoke Chinese. They grew up in China and the Chinese culture is part of my heritage and part of my earliest memory as a young kid in the state of Israel," Olmert was quoted as saying. "So China is not another country for me."
AP contributed to this article. |
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