Kudos to China for helping open the door to Palestinian unity

One uses the word “potentially”, for West Asian politics and the deeply embedded hostilities and discord that criss-cross the region are a minefield for peacemakers and conflict resolution professionals. Palestine is arguably by far the most difficult and intractable issue in the regional framework.

The core of the Beijing Declaration is a reiteration by all the Palestinian factions to realise national unity under an umbrella, wherein the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) would be acknowledged as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. This decision among the factions is an acknowledgement of the PLO’s primacy in Palestinian politics, and a signal to Hamas.

Donning the role of a catalyst for Palestinian factional consensus has been a significant achievement for Beijing. “The key to the Palestinian reconciliation process is to bolster confidence, keep to the right direction, and make incremental progress,” said Wang Yi.

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Palestinian factions agree to end division in pact brokered by China

While this meeting between the two foreign ministers is a reiteration of Ukraine’s often stated position regarding negotiation with Russia and has not led to any significant outcome, the fact that Kyiv is reaching out to Beijing burnishes China’s image as an unlikely peacemaker.

Brokered by China, the trilateral agreement was preceded by less than a week of secret meetings in Beijing. The global community was taken by surprise at the manner in which the deal was facilitated and the speed with which it was concluded between two bitterly estranged adversaries.

China’s engagement with and assessment of West Asia has been astute and resolute in the decades following the end of the Cold War. Beijing has progressively