IN AN unprecedented summit with five former Soviet republics in Central Asia, Chinese President Xi Jinping celebrated the beginning of a “new era” in relations with this key geostrategic area and which will allow him to consolidate his commercial and political plans.
“I am convinced that our common commitment will make this summit a great success and usher in a new era in China-Central Asia relations,” Xi said at a banquet in Xi’an (central China) with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
This is the first such summit since diplomatic relations were established between China and these countries in 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The meeting, which the Chinese government described as “of transcendental importance”, is being held in the former imperial capital of Xi’an, which was also the eastern end of the ancient Silk Road through which China had traded with China since ancient times. Europe and Middle East.
The five invited countries were linked for centuries to the Russian Empire and later to the Soviet Union and up to now maintain close economic, linguistic and diplomatic ties with Moscow.
But, with the war in Ukraine, Russian influence has languished and, according to experts, the Chinese president seeks to fill the space left by Moscow to expand his country’s international projection and influence.
The summit coincides with the G7 meeting in Hiroshima (Japan). This meeting brings together the leaders of the most advanced economies (Canada, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom), including US President Joe Biden, who considers Beijing a strategic rival of his country.
Japan also invited the rulers of India, Brazil and Indonesia, among others, seeking to get closer to developing countries where China makes large investments.
The summit in Japan is likely to focus on crafting a strategy to “counter China’s growing influence in the world,” according to Zhiqun Zhu, a professor of international relations at Bucknell University in the United States.
But the “diplomatic and strategic importance” of the unprecedented meeting in Xi’an “should not be underestimated,” he said.
“The China-Central Asia summit shows that China’s renewal cannot be hindered and has strong support in Central Asia and other developing countries,” he explained.
China’s trade with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan reached $70 billion last year, rising 22% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, according to data from Beijing.
Those former Soviet republics occupy a central place in the Chinese project called the New Silk Roads, also known as The Belt and Road.
This plan, launched in 2013 by Xi, is a pharaonic project that seeks to build roads, ports, railway lines and infrastructure abroad with Chinese capital.
China – the world’s second largest consumer of energy – has invested billions of dollars to exploit Central Asia’s natural gas reserves and develop railways that connect it with Europe, passing through this region.
Experts consulted by the AFP pointed out that it is likely that the summit will give a boost to the construction of large transport links and oil pipelines. Among these plans is the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, whose cost would amount to 6,000 million dollars, currently at a standstill.
An expansion of the oil pipeline connecting Central Asia with China could also be announced.