Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, where they discussed issues of expanding cooperation between these countries and China, including military. This is reported by the Xinhua news agency.
The meeting was dubbed the "first C5 summit" and took place in the city of Xi'an in northwest China. Xi Jinping called for the creation of mechanisms for meetings and dialogue in the areas of industrial development and investment, agriculture, transportation, emergency management, and "the formation and affairs of political parties."
In addition to statements about cooperation in the civil sphere, including in the development of trade, the Chinese President announced his readiness to "ensure peace" in Central Asia and "strengthen the defense" of the Central Asian states. At the same time, he also said that the PRC plans to allocate 26 billion yuan for the countries whose leaders gathered in Xi'an, without specifying what this money will be used for.
The Financial Times emphasizes that, although Russia has traditionally dominated Central Asia, the war unleashed by it in Ukraine has destabilized the situation in the region. Moscow has traditionally been considered a peacemaker here, but faith in it has been shaken after it failed to do anything about the conflict on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan last year.
China, in turn, sees Central Asia as an important overland trade route to Europe. However, with the outbreak of war, the northern part of this route, passing through Russia, began to be regarded as unreliable. This has led to China's efforts to strengthen transport corridors that bypass the Russian Federation.