China Monday called for calm and restraint after Turkey accused violence-hit Syria of shooting down its military jet and sought a solution at a NATO meeting.
"China has taken note of relevant reports and is closely following the situation," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei during Monday's regular news briefing.
Noting that the current regional situation is complicated and sensitive, Hong urged the parties concerned to remain calm, exercise restraint and solve the matter through diplomatic channels to avoid escalating tensions.
NATO said it would hold a meeting today, following a request from Turkey that invoked Article Four of the alliance's founding treaty, which covers threats to member states' security, AFP reported.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attack as "brazen and unacceptable," saying Washington would cooperate with Ankara to promote a transition in strife-torn Syria, according to Reuters.
Damascus claimed Friday that Syrian military spotted an "unidentified aerial target" that was flying at a low altitude and high speed which turned out to be a Turkish military plane entering Syrian airspace, according to the country's State-run news agency SANA.
However, AP quoted Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying that the warplane that went missing on Friday was downed by Syrian forces in international airspace and that the two Turkish pilots remain missing.
Ankara said the jet was on a training flight to test its radar capabilities and was not targeting Syria, while Damascus insisted it has no hostile intentions toward its neighbor.
Jin Liangxiang, a researcher with the Department for West Asian and African Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times that the incident made the regional situation even worse but was not serious enough to draw foreign military intervention at present.
"Voices calling for the Syria crisis to be solved through dialogue are still widely supported, and NATO will not act abruptly without a clear and convincing investigation result," Jin said.
Chen Shuangqing, a Syrian issues observer at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that the Syrian government is now overwhelmed by complicated factors such as smuggling and trespassing of borders.
Dozens of members of Syria's military defected to Turkey overnight with their families, AP cited a Turkish anonymous official as saying.
"Syria would not have brought down the plane if it had known it belonged to Turkey, which would give western countries an excuse to intervene with force," said Chen.
Agreeing that it is not a proper time for Western countries to conduct a military intervention as they are fully occupied by elections and an economic crisis, Chen said the foundation for dialogue is shaky as long as violent confrontations between the Syrian government and opposition forces continue.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 91 people had been killed on Sunday in Syria.