Xi and Kazakhstan’s Mandarin-speaking President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev agreed to double two-way trade between the two countries “as soon as possible.”
These commitments included expanding cooperation in oil and gas exploration and production, critical minerals, new energy, science and technology innovation, aerospace technology, and digital economy and trade.
02:25
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin meet on the sidelines of SCO in Kazakhstan
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin meet on the sidelines of SCO in Kazakhstan
Xi announced on Friday in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, that he was upgrading relations between the two countries to a “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership” and awarded the Order of Friendship to Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon for his contributions to promoting ties with Beijing.
State news agency Xinhua said it was the first time the award had been presented outside China.
“No matter how the international situation changes, China will always be Tajikistan’s reliable friend, dependable partner and close brother,” Xi told Rahmon.
“China remains unswervingly committed to promoting friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation with Tajikistan… and firmly supports Tajikistan’s efforts to safeguard its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he was quoted as saying in the Chinese statement.
Xi and Rahmon also attended the inauguration of Dushanbe’s new parliament and government buildings, a project that began in 2020 with an estimated investment of 1.5 billion yuan ($206 million) from Beijing.
Central Asian countries are now increasingly turning to Beijing for both investment and security guarantees, said Li Lifan, a Russia and Central Asia expert at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
“The war in Ukraine, whether intentional or not, has decoupled Central Asia from Moscow and marked a turning point in the Sino-Russian rivalry,” he said.
“With Russia preoccupied with the war in Ukraine, there is clearly a growing appetite in Central Asia for China to play a greater role in serving the region’s political, economic and security needs.”
Given Moscow’s anxieties about China’s role in its sphere of influence, Beijing has sought to downplay its expanding presence in the region, which Li said inevitably dealt a blow to deepening Sino-Russian ties.
“But Moscow’s growing asymmetric reliance on Beijing in its competition with the U.S.-led West may force it to accept it, at least for now,” he said.
Another mainland China-based expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said China’s rapid rise in influence in the region was largely due to the leadership vacuum created by Russia’s own decline after the Ukraine war.
“Countries in the region, especially Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, are severely affected by the war and the secondary sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies. It is natural that these countries are increasing their dependence on China, despite their efforts not to jeopardize traditional ties with Moscow,” the expert said.
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Why Russia is favorably disposed towards China’s presence in Central Asia
Why Russia is favorably disposed towards China’s presence in Central Asia
Resource-rich Central Asian states, particularly Kazakhstan, which shares a long border with the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in the far west, are of growing strategic importance to China, which is wary of being further alienated in a Cold War-style confrontation with Washington.
Li said Beijing and the Central Asian states may also have been drawn closer by shared deep-rooted security concerns about a perceived Western threat to “color revolutions,” protest movements that heralded the arrival of liberal democracy in former Soviet republics.
Speaking at the SCO summit in Astana, Xi called on countries to “resist external interference,” a message he repeated in Dushanbe, pledging “resolutely opposed to interference in Tajikistan’s internal affairs by any external forces under any pretext.”
“Central Asia has long been a battleground for great power competition, and China is particularly skeptical of Washington’s efforts to get closer to regional countries and make inroads in the region,” he said.
