ANKARA — Turkey has invited China and Russia to join for the first time discussions on Libya as part of a contact group of major powers, to convene this week in Istanbul, a Turkish official said.
“Russia and China have been invited as permanent members of the UN Security Council. We think they will participate but no information has reached us so far on what level,” foreign ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal told reporters.
The so-called International Contact Group on Libya, scheduled to meet on Friday in Istanbul, includes the countries participating in the Nato-led campaign targeting Muammar Gadhafi’s regime and regional players.
Russia abstained from a vote on a Security Council resolution in March that opened the way for international involvement in Libya and has since criticised the scale and intent of the Nato-led strikes.
China, for his part, had maintained a policy of non-interference in the conflict, but has appeared more involved recently and its officials have met several times with Libyan opposition representatives.
Along with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the foreign ministers of Australia, Bahrain, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Malta, Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland and the UAE have confirmed their participation in the Istanbul meeting, Unal said. — AFP