Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi wrapped up the first stop of his five-nation African tour following a full day of high-level meetings with Egyptian and Arab regional leaders. Security issues in Libya and the situation in Iran were key items on the agenda at several of the meetings, according to news reports.

Wang found a friendly audience in Cairo to speak out against critics of China’s controversial policies in Xinjiang where an estimated 1 million Muslim Uighurs are being interned. At a press briefing with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, Wang accused western media of “fabricating lies to drive a wedge between China and Islamic countries.”