China offers Colombia quake relief as new president’s US pivot leaves Beijing waiting

China said on Wednesday it would help Colombia recover from the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the country’s west on Monday, killing more than 200 people.

Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing would do what it could in suitable ways, in line with what Colombia requested, in response to questions from Xinhua and Telesur at a briefing in Beijing.

Guo said no Chinese nationals had been reported killed or injured in the disaster, and that the embassy in Bogota was “working to verify the safety of Chinese citizens in the affected areas”. He advised them to guard against secondary hazards from aftershocks.

President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolences on Tuesday to his Colombian counterpart Abelardo de la Espriella, expressing sympathies to bereaved families and the injured.

Guo said Xi had told the Colombian leader that his people would “pull together and recover and rebuild soon” under the new government.

The China International Development Cooperation Agency said separately on Tuesday that it was following the disaster closely and would provide support in appropriate ways based on Colombian requests, according to Xinhua. Spokeswoman Tang Ying said the assistance would be “within China’s capacity”.