Wang Yi Backs Two State Solution in Baku, Meets Herzog Separately
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed support for a two state solution in a 15 October meeting with Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin in Baku. He also held separate talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
The Palestinian and Israeli meetings produced different public accounts. China's statement focused on keeping the Palestinian issue on the diplomatic agenda, while the Israeli presidency's account emphasized Iran, its proxies and bilateral relations. The meetings were not presented as a joint Israeli Palestinian negotiating session.
China's message to Shahin
China's official account said Wang opposed marginalizing the Palestinian issue and called for support for a two state solution. In practical terms, that position envisages an Israeli state and a Palestinian state existing alongside each other. It is a policy Beijing advocates, not an agreement announced by the participants in Baku.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA also placed the Wang Shahin meeting on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, known as CICA. Its account described discussion of conditions in Palestine and relations with China. Shahin attended as the Palestinian foreign minister, not as president or prime minister.
Herzog raises Iran and its proxies
JNS, citing the Israeli presidency, said Herzog discussed threats from Iran and its terrorist proxies with Wang. Economic, trade and cultural relations were also on the agenda. The published Israeli account therefore included both security concerns and the relationship between the two countries.
In his summit address, carried by The Times of Israel, Herzog called for wider diplomatic and economic cooperation with Asian states while rejecting terrorism and boycotts as a basis for regional relations. That public speech was separate from his private conversation with Wang and should not be treated as a transcript of it.
Why the meetings took place in Baku
Herzog's office announced his arrival in Azerbaijan on 14 October for a visit lasting about a day and a half. The purpose was participation in the seventh CICA summit, an Asian forum devoted to cooperation and confidence building. China's foreign ministry also confirmed Wang's participation in the 15 October summit.
The Israeli itinerary included a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, bilateral meetings with other leaders and an address to the plenary. The presidency described the Aliyev talks as an opportunity to deepen strategic cooperation between Israel and Azerbaijan. It also announced a meeting with Azerbaijan's Jewish community leaders.
The setting brought different diplomatic relationships into the same city. It did not make every bilateral encounter part of one mediation process, and the times when statements were published do not establish the exact order of the private meetings.
Public positions are not a negotiated outcome
The Chinese account inspected for the Shahin meeting discussed Gaza and a two state solution without mentioning Hamas, the October 7 attack or the Board of Peace. Those omissions describe the published text; they do not prove that a subject was excluded from private discussion.
Israel News Pulse could not independently find a joint communique, an agreed negotiating framework or a verified account supporting additional claims about Herzog's requests concerning Hamas or the Board of Peace. The documented result is a Chinese statement of policy and separate bilateral exchanges, not a new peace agreement.
