Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, June 15 (Xinhua) — In the summer sun-drenched Xi’an, China’s ancient capital, six pomegranate trees stand gracefully near the site of the first China-Central Asia Summit in May 2023, their branches hanging low and laden with fruit.
Planted two years ago by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leaders of five Central Asian countries, this living avenue serves as a vivid testimony to the increasingly close and dynamic ties between China and Central Asia.
Building on past achievements, Xi and his Central Asian counterparts will gather in the Kazakh city of Astana later this month for a second summit to ensure even closer cooperation on trade, security and connectivity in the heart of Eurasia.
The Xi’an summit in 2023 was the first ever meeting of heads of state under the China-Central Asia cooperation mechanism. In the embrace of the ancient city, they agreed to hold the summit every two years, alternately in China and Central Asia.
Last year, the mechanism was further institutionalized with the establishment of a secretariat in Xi’an, the capital of Xi’s home province of Shaanxi.
The Chinese leader attaches great importance to China’s relations with the region. In his opinion, Central Asia is at a strategic crossroads, linking East and West, North and South.
“Developing friendly and cooperative relations with Central Asian countries is a priority of China’s foreign policy,” Xi Jinping said during his first visit to Central Asia since being elected as China’s president in 2013.
Since then, he has visited the region eight times, deepening partnerships bilaterally and through platforms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia.
Today, Central Asia is the only region in the world where every country is a strategic partner of China. According to Xi Jinping, these partnerships have paved a new path of good-neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation, creating a new paradigm of international relations.
The main event of the Xi’an summit was the signing of the Xi’an Declaration, in which the Chinese president and the leaders of the five Central Asian countries promised to work together to build a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future.
This promise is in line with the core idea of Xiplomacy’s diplomatic strategy: creating a community with a shared destiny for humanity. Notably, this idea has already been fully realized at the bilateral level in Central Asia.
Sheradil Baktygulov, Director of the Institute of World Politics of Kyrgyzstan, noted that the common political will of Xi Jinping and the leaders of Central Asian countries is the key to the sustainable development of Chinese-Central Asian cooperation.
“This cooperation not only strengthens bilateral ties, but also lays the foundation for a new model of multilateral cooperation in the Eurasian region,” he added.
The Chinese leader’s strong personal rapport with Central Asian leaders is helping to strengthen these ties. At the Xi’an summit, Xi Jinping hailed Tajik President Emomali Rahmon as an “old friend.” During talks with Xi, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev called him his “dear brother.”
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, also an experienced sinologist, arrived in Xi’an on his 70th birthday. Xi told him: “Your visit on such a special occasion speaks volumes about the strength of our bilateral relations and confirms your unique bond with China.”