Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is set to visit China. (Source: The Daily Beast)

Syrian news agency SANA reported on September 19 that President Bashar al-Assad will visit Beijing “in response to an official invitation” from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Syrian leader will meet with Xi Jinping at the Syria-China Summit in Beijing and then attend several meetings in Hangzhou. A “political and economic delegation” will accompany the head of state during the visit.

Last year, Damascus joined China's Belt and Road Initiative, which, according to Xinhua , “will help Syria open up broad horizons of cooperation with China and other countries.”

The upcoming visit is said to focus on further boosting economic ties with Beijing.

China is the third non-Arab country that President Assad has visited since the civil war broke out in the Middle Eastern country in 2011, killing more than 500,000 people, displacing millions and devastating the country's infrastructure and industry.

Bashar al-Assad's first and only visit to China in 2004 was the first by a Syrian leader.