BEIJING — China and five Central Asian countries vowed on Jan 25 to build an even closer community with a shared future, as President Xi Jinping chaired a virtual summit commemorating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the five countries.

As China's first major diplomatic activity involving Central Asia this year, the summit was attended by leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

"No matter how the international landscape may evolve or how developed China may grow, China will always remain a good neighbor, a good partner, a good friend, and a good brother that Central Asian countries can trust and count on," Xi said, reaffirming China's commitment to the region.

Model ties

Hailing the development of China-Central Asia relations over the past three decades as "a good example of fostering a new type of international relations," Xi pointed out that the keys to the successful cooperation are mutual respect, good-neighborly friendship, solidarity in trying times and mutual benefit.

The leaders of the five Central Asian countries spoke highly of the fruitful results of cooperation with China, praising the development of relations between Central Asian countries and China that has not only promoted their respective development and prosperity, but also effectively safeguarded regional peace and stability.

Li Yongquan, head of the China Society for Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies, said that, since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China has always treated the five Central Asian countries equally, and has carried out practical cooperation with the five countries to help them resolve their most urgent problems.

Both sides said they viewed the summit as a significant milestone.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the heads of state of the six countries reviewed the past, summed up their experience, discussed cooperation, and reached many important consensuses, which will inject new impetus into the future development of relations, Vice-Foreign Minister Le Yucheng told media after the summit.

Closer community with shared future

"China stands ready to work with Central Asian countries to build on the good momentum and strive shoulder-by-shoulder to build an even closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future," Xi said in his speech, also making some proposals to realize the objective.

He announced that China will continue to provide vaccines and anti-epidemic supplies to Central Asian countries, and will step up joint production and technology transfer with respect to COVID-19 vaccines and medicines.

In 2022, China will provide an additional 50 million doses of vaccines as aid to Central Asian countries, and set up traditional medicine centers in countries where they are needed, Xi added.

The Central Asian leaders said they will work with China "together for a shared future," echoing the motto for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and said they eagerly look forward to attending the opening ceremony of the sporting event next week.

High-quality cooperation

Trade between China and Central Asian nations has grown by more than 100 times in the past 30 years, and the stocks of China's direct investment in the five countries exceeded $14 billion, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Jan 17.

Analysts said that the complementarity between China's economy and the economies of the five countries provides huge space and potential for them to expand their pragmatic cooperation.

In his speech, Xi suggested that the two sides should speed up high-quality cooperation, and strengthen cooperation on artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and other high-tech sectors.

According to a joint statement released after the summit, China and the Central Asian countries agreed to strengthen the docking of the Belt and Road Initiative with the five nations' own development strategies.

"I believe the summit will open up broad prospects for Central Asia and China to further strengthen pragmatic cooperation," said Yerlan Madiev, an expert at the Institute of World Economy and Politics in Kazakhstan.