BEIJING: China’s President Xi Jinping kicked off a summit with Central Asian leaders on Thursday, looking for to build regional influence as G7 leaders also hold a rival meeting in Japan. The summit held in the ancient Chinese city of Xi’an, the eastern end of the Silk Road that connected China to Europe through Central Asia. China had termed the summit as very significant. It is the first of its kind meeting since the formation of formal ties 31-year ago.
China’s President Hosts Central Asia Summit
China says trade with Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan reached 70 billion dollars in 2022 and expanded 22 5 year-on-year in the first quarter of the current year. Central Asia has also become important for China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a defining geopolitical project for President Xi.
China, the second-largest energy consumer in the world, has invested billions of dollars to knock natural gas reserves in Central Asia, while rail links connecting Beijing to Europe crisscross the region.
Experts said this week’s summit in China is likely to see efforts to reach deals to further expand that vast network, including a long-stalled 6 billion dollars China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway and an expansion of the Central Asia-to-China gas pipeline projects.
