By Liz Lee and David Lawder
BEIJING/WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) – China wants to see the Strait of Hormuz reopen without curbs or tolls, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Bloomberg News in a live interview on Friday, adding that the U.S. was confident Beijing would act to limit material support for Iran.
Citing remarks by Chinese officials at the Beijing summit of the U.S. and Chinese leaders, he said, “It’s really important for China to have the Strait of Hormuz open, no tolling, no military control, and that was clear from the meeting.
“So we welcome that.”
Greer participated in summit meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
As a fragile ceasefire holds in the Iran war, Trump is keen to win Chinese support to end the conflict, which has dented his approval ratings ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections. China is close to Iran and is the main buyer of its oil.
Iran has largely shut the strait to ships apart from its own, causing the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies.
“With respect to Chinese involvement with Iran, our view is the Chinese are being very pragmatic, and they don’t want to be on the wrong side of this,” Greer added.
“They want to see peace in that area. President Trump wants to see peace in that area. So we have a lot of confidence that they will do what they can to limit any kind of material support for Iran.”
China urged continued and stabilised momentum in deescalation, its foreign ministry said in a statement about the talks on Iran.
“There is no need to continue this war that should not have happened, and finding a solution earlier is beneficial to both the United States and Iran … and even the whole world,” it said.
The ministry did not specify the Strait of Hormuz in its summary, but called for shipping routes to be reopened as soon as possible.
China has consistently called for an end to the fighting, restoration of safe passage in the Strait and for it to remain open.
Beijing has engaged in a flurry of diplomatic efforts but has refrained from forceful criticism of the U.S. conduct of the war.
Nearly a fifth of global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas travel through the Strait in normal times.
(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Clarence Fernandez)
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