Meeting canceled over 'Venezuela issue'

Beijing said on Tuesday that "individual countries' insistence on manipulating the Venezuela issue" led to the cancellation of the Inter-American Development Bank's annual meeting, which was scheduled to be held in Chengdu, Sichuan province, starting on Tuesday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a daily news conference that China deeply regrets the bank's decision to cancel the meeting, and said China is not to blame.

As the host country, China attached great importance to the meeting and did a great deal of preparation in the hope of making it a success, Geng said.