Micheál Martin to discuss Beijing’s UN role on visit to China

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin arrives in Beijing on Monday for a four-day visit to China that will include meetings with vice president Han Zheng and foreign minister Wang Yi.

Mr Martin will be the third member of the Cabinet to visit China this year and the most senior Irish minister to travel to the country since before the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking ahead of the visit, the Tánaiste said he wanted to renew the political, cultural and economic connections between Ireland and China and to communicate the Government’s priorities for the relationship.

“My meetings and engagements in Beijing provide an opportunity to outline Ireland’s policy objectives and to discuss a range of global challenges, including climate change, the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the situation in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East,” he said.

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“Ireland’s relationship with China is based within the framework of the UN Charter and the global multilateral system and my engagements with political leaders will include discussions of China’s role as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, of which it is holding the presidency this month, and as a member of the Human Rights Council.”

After his political meetings in Beijing, Mr Martin will make a speech at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, which hosts an Irish Studies Centre. He will formally open the new Ireland House offices in Shanghai which host Ireland’s consulate general and State agencies. And he will speak at Shanghai’s China Europe International Business School about Ireland’s EU journey and EU-China relations.

Beijing views Ireland as a friendly country within the EU and there are no bilateral issues to cause friction between the two countries. But Mr Martin drew criticism from the Chinese embassy in Dublin earlier this year for a speech in which he criticised Beijing’s human rights record and said that some Irish companies and academic institutions needed to “de-risk” from China.

“China-Ireland co-operation in various fields, especially bilateral trade and economic ties, has brought to Ireland tangible benefits rather than ‘risks’. To simply define China-Ireland relations with fundamental ‘differences’ or ‘risks’ not only contradicts the positive elements within the speech, but also denies the achievements of China-Ireland relations and turns back on a brighter future for this relationship,” the embassy said.

Mr Martin has criticised China’s failure to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year and to join the western powers in imposing economic sanctions on Moscow. But on the situation in Gaza, Ireland and China agree on the need for an immediate ceasefire and a return to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.