China's first special envoy for the Syrian Xie Xiaoyan said Russia's military operations were carried out at the invitation of Syria's government with the aim of striking at domestic extremists.

He also said the international community should work harder together to defeat terrorism in the region. 

"Russia's anti-terrorist operations in Syria are part of international counter-terrorism efforts. In the past six months, they had effectively curbed the spread of extremists and terrorists there. I think this is an encouraging progress," he said.