Oriented on making people closer

From June 16 to 18, 2025, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Kazakhstan and attended the 2nd China-Central Asia Summit. The heads of state, in a friendly atmosphere, summed up the cooperation between China and Central Asian countries in all fields since the Xi'an Summit, outlined prospects for future development, and unanimously decided to promote the "China-Central Asia Spirit", reaffirmed their commitment to eternal good-neighborliness and friendship, as well as their readiness to work together to continuously achieve new successes in developing a community with a shared future for China and Central Asia. As Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to Turkmenistan, I would like to share with dear friends from Turkmenistan the main results and important agreements reached during the Summit.

Keyword 1: "China-Central Asia Spirit"

A distinctive feature of the Summit is the proclamation of the "China-Central Asia Spirit" by President Xi Jinping. The cooperation between China and the Central Asian countries is rooted in more than 2,000 years of friendly relations, cemented by the solidarity and mutual trust that has been established over the past 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, and has been greatly enhanced by mutually beneficial cooperation in the new era.

With many years of experience and practice, the six countries have developed and formed the "China-Central Asia Spirit" characterized by mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual benefit, mutual assistance, and the promotion of joint modernization through high-quality development.

President Xi Jinping accurately formulated the core idea of ​​the "China-Central Asia Spirit": it is important to adhere to the principles of mutual respect and equality; it is important to strengthen mutual trust and act in unison; it is important to adhere to the policy of mutual benefit and common development; It is important to support each other in the spirit of mutual assistance. The leaders of the Central Asian countries unanimously agreed, in this spirit, to strengthen solidarity and conceptual unity with China, consolidate the goal of building a community of shared destiny, take a more active position and more practical measures to deepen cooperation, and promote the continuous development of the China-Central Asia format and its new remarkable achievements.

Keyword 2: High-Quality Development

The most prominent theme of the Summit is that the six heads of state declared 2025-2026 as the Years of High-quality Development of China-Central Asia Cooperation. The two sides will focus on areas such as smooth trade, industry and investment, transport connectivity, green resource management, agricultural modernization and mutual travel of citizens to stimulate the achievement of more tangible results and promote the prosperity of each country.

The Action Plan for High-Quality Implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative was signed in the presence of the six heads of state. This is the first time that China has signed a cooperation document under the Belt and Road Initiative simultaneously with all countries in the region. President Xi Jinping announced the establishment of three specialized cooperation centers within the framework of the China-Central Asia format, including a poverty alleviation center, an education exchange and cooperation center, a desertification control center, and a platform for creating favorable conditions for trade.

This year, China will provide Central Asian countries with a 1.5 billion yuan grant to support significant projects in the five countries to improve people's well-being and promote their own development. Over the next two years, China will provide 3,000 quotas for vocational training courses for Central Asian countries.

Keyword 3: Eternal Good-Neighborliness and Friendship

The most significant achievement of the Summit was the signing of the Treaty of Eternal Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation by the heads of state of the six countries. The Treaty legally enshrines the principle of eternal friendship. This is another milestone in the history of relations between the six countries, and at the same time a remarkable achievement of China's neighborhood diplomacy that has been achieved now and can be used for a long time to come.

The signing of the Treaty demonstrated that the political mutual trust between China and the Central Asian countries has reached a new level, strategic cooperation has taken an important step forward, and the rapprochement of peoples has received new impetus, laying a solid foundation for the long-term and stable development of bilateral relations. During the Summit, China and the Central Asian countries achieved a number of new cooperation results in such areas as regional cooperation, mutual people-to-people travel, educational exchanges, as well as in the cultural and tourism fields. The number of sister cities between China and Central Asian countries has exceeded 100 pairs, which is in line with the initiatives put forward by President Xi Jinping three years ago.

At present, China is comprehensively promoting the construction of a powerful state and the great cause of national revival. No matter how the international situation changes, China has been and remains committed to the policy of external openness, is ready to jointly carry out higher-quality cooperation with its Central Asian partners, and deepen the integration of interests for the sake of common development. China is ready to multiply the "China-Central Asia Spirit" with all partners, and, in pursuit of the task of creating a community of shared destiny, achieve greater success in developing cooperation between China and Central Asia.

Qian Naicheng, Ambassador of China to Turkmenistan

Photo: akorda.kz