On Wednesday, President Xi Jinping told his Kazakh counterpart that China wishes to expand cooperation with Kazakhstan in “prosperity and adversity.”
As relations with the West deteriorate, China will host an in-person Central Asian meeting this week.
As Moscow invests in the Ukraine war, former Soviet republics Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan seek alternative investors.
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was the first of the five Central Asian leaders to arrive in Xian for the meeting.
China and Kazakhstan should “promote the construction of a China-Kazakhstan community with a shared future featuring friendship from generation to generation, a high degree of mutual trust, together in prosperity and adversity,” Xi said.
“Your state visit to China demonstrates the high level of relations between our two countries and once again confirms the indissoluble bond with China.”
Tokayev told Xi that Kazakhstan aims to trade $40 billion with China annually by 2030, up from $31 billion in 2022.
“Kazakhstan is interested in expanding the export of agricultural products to China,” he said, applauding Xi’s Belt and Road infrastructure program for improving transit links.
“Kazakhstan is ready to deliver legumes, high-quality and ecologically clean frozen beef and lamb,” Tokayev said.
After the Soviet Union’s collapse, China’s commerce with the five Central Asian states increased 100-fold. 2022 saw a record $70 billion in Chinese-five nation investment.
COVID-19 forced the first China-Central Asia leaders to summited online last year.
The first in-person summit was held at Xian, a key city on the ancient Silk Road that crossed Central Asia.
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