A Rohingya refugee child washes in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China welcomes the measures taken by Myanmar’s government to alleviate the situation in Rakhine state.

Wang made the comments in New York on Thursday on during a meeting on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly with Myanmar officials, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

More than 400,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled from Rakhine across the border to Bangladesh following a counter-insurgency offensive by Myanmar’s army in the wake of militant attacks on security forces. U.N. officials have described Myanmar’s strategy as “ethnic cleansing”.