China is confident that Greece’s economy will turn around with the hard work of all parties, a deputy foreign minister said on Monday, but would not say if the Greek prime minister could attend an emerging powers summit later in the week in Russia.
Greeks overwhelmingly rejected conditions of a rescue package from creditors on Sunday, throwing the future of the country’s euro-zone membership into further doubt and deepening a stand-off with lenders.
China’s Deputy Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said that he believed the Greek debt crisis would be “appropriately resolved”.
“I believe that with the hard efforts of all sides, Greece’s economic situation will turn around. The economic crisis will be appropriately handled,” he told reporters, in China’s first official comment since the Greek vote.
“Whether or not it can be appropriately handled will not only have an important impact on Greece and its people, but will have an important impact on ... the world too.”
Asked whether Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras might come to this week’s summit of the BRICS group of five major emerging nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - Cheng said it was up to Russia, as host of the meeting, to decide whether to invite other countries.