China plans to take part in the upcoming international conference on Syria proposed earlier by Russia and the United States, Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Monday, May 27, according to RIA Novosti.

He said Beijing was “ready to cooperate with other parties in promoting the soonest resolution of the Syrian issue in a just and peaceful way,” adding that “China supports all efforts to reach a political settlement of the Syrian crisis.”

Together with Russia, China is widely regarded as an ally of Syria, and along with Russia has vetoed three Western-backed Security Council resolutions designed to pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad to end the use of force.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced after a Moscow meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on May 7 that the two countries had decided to hold an international conference aimed at facilitating a solution through political dialogue to the Syrian crisis, in which more than 80,000 people have died since fighting broke out between government forces and rebels in March 2011.