Heads of state guidance lifts friendly relations to fresh heights: China Daily editorial

Under the guidance of successful heads of state diplomacy, China-Tajikistan relations have maintained sound momentum featuring mutual political trust, fruitful Belt and Road cooperation, healthy cultural exchanges, and close coordination in regional and world affairs.

President Xi Jinping's visit to Tajikistan that started on Thursday, his first visit to the country in five years and the last leg of his Central Asia tour that brought him to Kazakhstan earlier this week, enriches the China-Tajikistan community with a shared future, which the two sides agreed to jointly build in May last year, and injects new impetus into the two countries' traditional friendship.

The talks between President Xi and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon on cooperation in key areas, and the regional and international situations, will consolidate the solidarity between the two countries and expand their common interests.

Drawing a blueprint for the growth of China-Tajikistan relations in the foreseeable future, the two leaders will raise the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries that they formed in 2017 to a new level.

China has long been Tajikistan's largest source of investment and its major trading partner. The two-way trade was close to $4 billion in 2023, reaching another record high. Such strong momentum has continued in the first four months of this year.

By aligning the Belt and Road Initiative with Tajikistan's National Development Strategy for the period through 2030, both sides aim to enhance their result-oriented cooperation in trade, finance, tourism, transportation, communication, ecology, culture and artificial intelligence.

The two sides are set to make greater efforts to tap the structural complementarity of the two economies. To this end, China is willing to import more premium produce from Tajikistan, and encourage strong Chinese companies to make more investments in Tajikistan to help modernize its industrial system.

By diversifying their trade beyond the traditional areas such as infrastructure, metallurgy and energy, and strengthening their cooperation under the Silk Road e-commerce framework, the two countries can realize more mutual benefits. Cooperation in new fields such as new energy vehicles, solar panels and satellite communications has bright prospects.

In the security field, in the face of an increasingly volatile world, Xi has proposed that the two countries jointly act on the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, enhance exchange between their law enforcement and security agencies, crack down on terrorist, extremist and separatist forces such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, and prevent and combat infiltration and sabotage by terrorists and extremists.

As indicated by the strong consensus the two sides have demonstrated on maintaining regional stability and promoting common development during President Xi's visit, successful heads of state diplomacy continues to guide and ensure the healthy development of bilateral ties.