On April 23, 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu said the Israeli government attaches great importance to its relations with China, noting that China has great past and future and has made remarkable achievements in its development in the past decades of years. Hailing China's important contributions to the world economy and development of mankind, he said the Jewish state is ready to strengthen cooperation with China and expand mutually beneficial cooperation in infrastructure to achieve common development. Netanyahu also informed Yang of Israel's position on the Middle East issue.
Yang said the Sino-Israeli relations have been developing rapidly. Both sides have maintained frequent high-level visits, deepened mutual understanding and trust and strengthened economic and trade cooperation, said Yang, pointing to the year-by-year increase of personnel exchanges and deepening cooperation on science, technology, agriculture, education, culture and tourism. Facing the deepening international financial crisis, China and Israel should work together to seek more broad space for cooperation and push their friendly relations of mutual benefit and cooperation to a new level, added the Chinese foreign minister.
Yang said the outcome that Israel and the Arab states have achieved through years of negotiations did not come by easily. All parties concerned should cherish the hard-won outcome, stick to the track of peace talks and jointly push forward the peace process. China advocates that parties concerned in the Middle East issue should resume negotiations as soon as possible based on relevant UN resolutions, the "Land for Peace" principle, and the Middle East Roadmap for Peace to eliminate differences and achieve peace. China is ready to offer help for Israel and the Arab states to hold dialogue and increase mutual trust, he said, adding that China will play a constructive role in promoting Israel-Palestine peace talks to properly resolve the Middle East issue at an early date.