China will promote peace talks on Ukraine crisis - foreign minister

China's foreign minister, Qin Gang, said China will persist in promoting peace talks for the Ukraine crisis, and is "willing to maintain communication and coordination with Russia to make tangible contributions to the political settlement of the crisis," a foreign ministry statement on Friday said.

The statement referred to Qin's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa, India, on Thursday.