Astana Summit forges strong bulwark against increasing global turbulence: China Daily editorial

Over the past more than three decades since China and Kazakhstan established diplomatic ties, the relationship has withstood the test of time and the vicissitudes of the international landscape, evolving into a permanent comprehensive strategic partnership.

The everlasting friendship of the two nations has grown stronger over time, and it sets a fine example of solidarity, mutual benefit, and mutual success between neighboring countries.

It was in the largest Central Asian country that President Xi Jinping put forward the initiative of jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt, and the Belt and Road cooperation between China and the five countries in Central Asia has yielded fruitful results.

As the six nations forge ahead on a path of shared progress and mutual respect, and continue to deepen their solidarity and mutual trust, they are expanding their areas of cooperation, helping to secure not just their own futures but also contributing to a more harmonious and prosperous world for generations to come.

Central to this is a shared vision of sustainable development and mutual prosperity, where the Belt and Road Initiative serves as a catalyst for increased connectivity, investment, and cooperation across key sectors such as trade, infrastructure, and agriculture. By aligning their development strategies with this ambitious initiative, the Central Asian countries stand poised to realize their full potential, while collectively combating common threats to regional stability, such as terrorism and transnational crime.

The second China-Central Asia Summit provides a new opportunity for the two sides to further consolidate their cooperation. Over the past two years since the Xi'an Summit, under the strategic guidance of heads-of-state diplomacy, China's relations with the five Central Asian countries have achieved leapfrog development, and cooperation in various fields has achieved fruitful results.

The warm welcome President Xi received upon his arrival at Astana, Kazakhstan, on Monday speaks volumes of the high hope the host country of the second China-Central Asia Summit pins on the event producing rich outcomes for the common development of the region.

China's pursuit of modernization has produced broad development opportunities for the Central Asian countries. And China's development experience in poverty alleviation, rural vitalization, green industries, the digital economy and other fields is of great reference value to the five Central Asian countries.

The two sides have highly convergent development concepts, and have continuously strengthened the docking of their development strategies, and promoted greater connectivity, so as to share development opportunities and achievements.

The six countries are now adding strong momentum to their joint efforts to drive development by rapidly advancing cooperation in new areas such as digital trade, renewable energy, and the green economy, and sharing experiences in poverty reduction, desertification control and ecological protection.

Apart from concrete cooperation in economy, trade, culture and security, China and the Central Asian countries closely coordinate and cooperate in multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations, and firmly support each other on issues involving their core interests, jointly uphold the international trade rules, and are working together to promote solidarity and cooperation among the Global South countries.

As the world has entered a new period of turbulence and change, it needs a stable, prosperous, harmonious and connected Central Asia. China and the Central Asian countries should take the Astana Summit as an opportunity to further build consensus and plan the next stage of their collaboration.

To that end, the two sides should demonstrate their firm determination to seek peace, development and cooperation with practical actions, thus adding fresh impetus to regional development and injecting strong positive energy into the building of a China-Central Asia community with a shared future.