Opening up a new era of China-Central Asia cooperation

by Xinhua writers Zhang Yisheng, Yang Dehong

BEIJING -- More than 2,100 years ago, Zhang Qian set off from what is now the northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an as an envoy of Han Dynasty. He braved a world of uncertainties and traveled westward through harsh terrain to Central Asia.

Zhang's pioneering expedition opened up a route that later became the Silk Road, which saw flourishing interactions between China and Central Asia.

Next week, the heads of state of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will attend the China-Central Asia Summit in Xi'an, which will draw a new blueprint for China-Central Asia relations and open up a new era of cooperation.

Primarily, the summit will further deepen strategic mutual trust between China and Central Asian countries.

Over the past decade, under the strategic guidance of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the heads of state of the five Central Asian countries, the two sides have made a series of historic and groundbreaking achievements in cooperation.

In January 2022, a virtual summit was held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Central Asian countries, and China-Central Asia cooperation mechanisms were created. Then, in September 2022, Xi attended the 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, and paid state visits to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The forthcoming event in Xi'an is the first summit held offline by the heads of state of the six countries since the establishment of diplomatic ties 31 years ago. During the summit, the heads of state will review the development of China-Central Asia relations and exchange views on China-Central Asia mechanism building, cooperation in various fields and major international and regional issues of common interest.

Moreover, the landmark gathering will inject new impetus into high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

Central Asia is where the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was initiated. In a speech delivered at Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev University on Sept. 7, 2013, Xi for the first time proposed building the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Central Asian countries were among the first to publicly support the BRI and also pioneers in Belt and Road cooperation.

In the past 10 years, the five Central Asian countries have taken an active part in the BRI, turning Central Asia into a demonstration zone of Belt and Road cooperation. China and the Central Asian countries have strengthened the synergy of their development strategies and actively promoted policy coordination, connectivity of infrastructure and facilities, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people bonds.

During the approaching summit, all parties will discuss how to further promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

Additionally, the summit will draw up a new blueprint for strengthening practical cooperation.

Currently, China-Central Asia cooperation is at an all-time high, and mutually beneficial cooperation has delivered tangible benefits to the six countries and their peoples.

China is the largest trading and investment partner of the five Central Asian countries. Trade between China and the five countries reached 70.2 billion U.S. dollars last year, a historic high. By the end of 2022, China's direct investment stock in the five countries reached nearly 15 billion dollars.

During next week's summit, the heads of state will review the history of friendly exchanges, sort out the fruits of cooperation, and put forward new cooperation initiatives, so as to advance all-round, deep and multidimensional cooperation between China and Central Asia in a solid and efficient manner, and foster a new cooperation pattern featuring a high degree of complementarity and win-win results.

Last but not least, the summit will make new contributions to maintaining regional security.

China and Central Asian countries, with their interests closely entwined, have stood together through thick and thin. So strengthening relations between China and Central Asian countries is crucial to themselves as well as the peace and development of the region.

Through bilateral cooperation and multilateral platforms such as the SCO and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, China and Central Asian countries have achieved remarkable results in jointly cracking down on religious extremists, ethnic separatists and violent terrorist forces, effectively guaranteeing national and regional security.

Besides, China and Central Asian countries respect each other's choice of development path based on national conditions, support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests, firmly oppose external interference in internal affairs, and do not allow anyone or any force to create chaos and turmoil in Central Asia.

At the upcoming summit, all parties will reaffirm their consistent position of firm support for each other on issues concerning each other's core interests, exchange views on the situation in Afghanistan and other regional and international hotspot issues, and send a shared message of upholding multilateralism and jointly safeguarding regional and world peace and security.

As China-Central Asia cooperation meets the needs of the six countries and the expectations of their peoples, the summit in Xi'an will certainly usher in a new era of China-Central Asia cooperation, and help build a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of Qiushi Journal.