Chinese President Xi Jinping will chair the C+C5 summit later this month as he seeks to promote key issues such as his Belt and Road Initiative in what his Foreign Ministry has described as an event of “key importance”.
For the first time in more than 30 years, leaders of all six nations – China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan – will meet in person to discuss growing ties and a “new era of cooperation,” he said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Webin told reporters. Monday.
President Xi Jinping speaks at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, July 1, 2021. (Ju Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
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“This will be the first major diplomatic event China hosts this year and the first in-person summit between the heads of state of the six countries in the 31 years since China has established diplomatic relations with these countries,” he said. “It is of key importance in the history of relations between China and Central Asian countries.”
The spokesman did not go into detail on what will be discussed during the May 18-19 summit, but said that an “important policy document” would be signed that would “map a new blueprint for China-Central Asia relations.”
President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev during the Belt and Road Forum at the International Conference Center in Yanqi Lake, China May 15, 2017. (Reuters/Roman Pilipey/Pool)
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The announcement comes a month after Xi first said China would host the summit, and China’s coveted Belt and Road Initiative is expected to be a major topic of discussion.
China has sharply increased its investments in the regional bloc – all of which are run by authoritarian regimes – and last year Xi said Beijing planned to nearly double its annual spending.
According to last month’s Silk Road Briefing, Chinese investment in Central Asia by the end of 2020 was approaching $40 billion a year, more than half of that in Kazakhstan.
A China-Europe freight train loaded with containers awaits departure in Lianyungang, east China’s Jiangsu province, March 14, 2023. (CPHOTO/Future release via Getty Images)
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But in January 2022, the Chinese president said he would increase these investments to $70 billion a year.
Infrastructure and trade agreements should be discussed at the next summit to ensure that this commitment becomes a reality.
