China’s president Xi Jinping has called for a “fair and objective” investigation into the MH17 disaster.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner late on Friday, during his visit to Buenos Aires, he said he had been shocked by news of the crash and conveyed his deep condolences to victims’ families.
He added: "I hope that a fair and objective probe will be carried out to establish the truth as early as possible.”
While the US, UK and others have said that the plane was probably downed by a surface-to-air-missile from a separatist-held area, China has avoided discussing the issue of responsibility.
State media said that China’s UN envoy Liu Jieyi told Friday’s Security Council meeting: "Our priority now is to establish facts. Pending that, it is not advisable to jump to any conclusion, make any assumptions or trade accusations. We support conducting an independent, just and objective investigation of the incident.
"We also call upon all the parties to offer coordination and cooperation in the process of the investigation.”
China and Russia frequently vote together at the UN security council - vetoing sanctions against Syria, for example - regarding each other as the P5 member which whom they have most in common. In other cases, they have chosen neither to support nor reject the other’s position; when Russia vetoed a resolution declaring the referendum on Crimean secession illegal this spring, China abstained.