Xi'an Declaration of the China-Central Asia Summit (Full Text)

China-Central Asia Summit Xi'an Declaration

On May 2023-5, 18, President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China, President Tokayev of the Republic of Kazakhstan, President of the Kyrgyz Republic Zaparov, President of the Republic of Tajikistan Rahmon, President Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan, and President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Mirziyoyev jointly held the China-Central Asia Summit in Xi'an.

In an atmosphere of warmth, friendship and mutual understanding, all sides comprehensively reviewed the history of friendly exchanges between China and the five Central Asian countries, summed up the experience of mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, looked forward to the direction of future cooperation, and stated the following:

All parties agreed that China's fruitful all-round cooperation with the five Central Asian countries conforms to the fundamental interests of the six countries and their peoples. In the face of unprecedented changes in a century, and focusing on the future of the peoples of all countries in the region, the six countries are determined to join hands to build a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future.

2. The Parties announced that the China-Central Asia Summit Mechanism was formally established on the occasion of holding the summit. The summit is held every two years, with China on one side and Central Asian countries on the other in alphabetical order, and the two sides take turns. All sides are willing to give full play to the strategic leading role of the head of state diplomacy and strengthen the top-level design and overall planning for the development of China's relations with Central Asian countries.

All sides will accelerate the building of China-Central Asia mechanisms, establish a ministerial meeting mechanism in key priority areas of cooperation as soon as possible, give full play to the role of their foreign affairs departments, study the feasibility of establishing a permanent secretariat, and comprehensively promote the construction of China-Central Asia cooperation and related mechanisms.

3. The Parties reaffirm their mutual understanding and support on issues involving each other's core interests. China firmly supports the development path chosen by the Central Asian countries and supports all countries in safeguarding their national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and in adopting independent domestic and foreign policies.

China supports the strengthening of cooperation among Central Asian countries, highly appreciates the mechanism of consultation and meeting of Central Asian heads of state, believes that it is an important factor in maintaining regional security, stability and sustainable development, and highly appreciates the significant contributions made by Central Asian countries to maintaining regional and world peace and development.

Central Asian countries spoke highly of the CPC's valuable experience in governing the country and affirmed the importance of the Chinese-style modernization path to world development. The Central Asian countries reaffirm their adherence to the one-China principle.

All sides agreed that safeguarding national security, political stability and the constitutional system is of great significance, and resolutely oppose undermining legitimate political power and instigating "color revolutions", and oppose interference in the internal affairs of other countries in any form and under any pretext.

All sides stressed that democracy is the common pursuit and value of all mankind. Independently choosing the development path and governance model is a country's sovereignty and brooks no interference.

All sides believe that exchanges between legislative bodies play an important role in promoting global cooperation for peace, security and stability.

V. All sides highly value the importance of jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative in leading international cooperation, and will take the 2026th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative as a new starting point to strengthen the Belt and Road Initiative and Kazakhstan's "Bright Road" New Economic Policy, Kyrgyzstan's National Development Programme until 2030, Tajikistan's National Development Strategy for the Restoration of the Silk Road, and New Uzbekistan The 2022-2026 development strategy and other initiatives of the five Central Asian countries are docked with the development strategies, deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and form a new pattern of cooperation that is deeply complementary and highly win-win.

All sides believe that economic and trade cooperation between China and Central Asian countries has great potential, and are willing to give full play to the role of the mechanism of the China-Central Asia Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting to comprehensively enhance the scale of trade. Tap the potential of the China-Central Asia e-commerce cooperation dialogue mechanism, and expand cooperation in emerging fields such as digital trade and green economy.

All parties are willing to improve the quality and level of economic and trade cooperation, continue to promote trade development, promote the diversification of trade structure and simplify trade procedures.

The Parties noted the importance of jointly formulating the strategy of the China-Central Asia New Economic Dialogue, including taking corresponding measures to ensure unimpeded trade, expand the supply of products from all countries, and establish a common space for industrial cooperation.

All parties are willing to promote the cooperation and development of infrastructure and engineering construction, accelerate the connection of digital and green infrastructure, and jointly promote the sustainable development of infrastructure and engineering construction cooperation. All parties are willing to study the possibility of establishing a database of key green investment projects.

All sides announced the establishment of the China-Central Asia Industrialists Committee to support close cooperation between trade promotion agencies, business associations and relevant organizations in trade and investment promotion, and play a greater role in promoting the development of economic and trade cooperation between China and Central Asian countries.

All parties are willing to hold the China-Central Asia Industrial and Investment Cooperation Forum on a regular basis, upgrade the investment agreement between China and Central Asian countries, encourage the expansion of industrial cooperation, enhance the level of regional industrial development, maintain the stability and efficiency of regional industrial chains and supply chains, create common value chains, encourage the improvement of the stability, fairness, transparency and sustainability of their foreign investment policies, and continue to create a market-oriented and more attractive investment and business environment.

7. The Parties agreed to gradually and orderly increase flights and study the feasibility of measures to facilitate personnel exchanges such as the China-Central Asia Cooperation Business Travel Card. Accelerate the modernization of existing port facilities, study the opening of additional ports, achieve full coverage of the "green channel" for rapid customs clearance of agricultural and sideline products at border ports, carry out cooperation and exchanges such as "single window" interconnection of international trade, optimize the business environment at ports, promote cross-border customs clearance facilitation, and actively develop regional logistics networks.

The Parties stressed the need to consolidate the important position of Central Asia as a transport hub in Eurasia, accelerate the construction of the China-Central Asia transport corridor, develop multimodal transport between China and Central Asia, China and Central Asia - Middle East and China - Central Asia - Europe, including the China-Kazakhstan-Turkey-Iraq (Lang) transit corridor, and trans-Caspian transport routes passing through the ports of Aktau, Kurek and Turkmenbashi, so as to give full play to the transit transport potential of Termez.

The parties are willing to work together to improve the transportation infrastructure, including the construction and upgrading of existing railways and highways from China to Central Asia.

All parties pointed out the importance of completing the feasibility study of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Ukraine Railway, and will accelerate the construction of the railway. At the same time, all parties pointed out that it is of great significance to build the Zhonghata City-Ayaguz Railway, ensure the smooth operation of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Ukraine Highway, and realize the normal operation of the China-Tajikistan Highway and the "Western China-Western Europe" Highway.

It was noted that it was important to study and develop optimal transit transport options for travel from Central Asian countries to and from South-East Asia and other Asian countries.

All parties will take effective measures to increase the volume of goods transit, including border ports, and build an all-round, complex, three-dimensional, green, low-carbon and sustainable transportation infrastructure system between China and Central Asia.

All sides are willing to tap the potential of agricultural cooperation between China and Central Asian countries and promote trade in agricultural and livestock products. China is willing to increase the types of agricultural products imported from Central Asia.

All parties are willing to actively develop smart agriculture, strengthen the application of water-saving, green and other efficient technologies and exchange of advanced experience.

All parties are willing to promote technical and talent exchanges and cooperation in the fields of desertification land and saline-alkali land treatment and development, water-saving irrigation, pest control, animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, etc., so as to enhance the resilience of the sustainable development of agricultural systems.

The Parties welcomed the initiative to hold an international food security conference in Uzbekistan in 2023 and noted the outcome of the International Conference on Cooperation in Food Security held in Ashgabat on 2023-3 March 9 in the context of climate change.

The Parties reaffirmed their willingness to work together to ensure food security under climate change, noting the importance of more ecological approaches to agriculture, such as the protection of biodiversity and the rational use of water and land resources.

The Parties pointed out the importance of jointly improving policies in reducing poverty, increasing employment, increasing income and creating jobs, and are willing to strengthen cooperation in the above fields, introduce effective social assistance policies, and carry out expert and business exchanges.

All Parties support the establishment of the China-Central Asia Energy Development Partnership, expand cooperation in the entire energy industry chain, further expand cooperation in oil, natural gas, coal and other traditional energy sources, strengthen cooperation in renewable energy such as hydropower, solar energy and wind energy, deepen cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, implement green technology and clean energy projects, and practice the development concept of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing.

The Parties pointed out the importance of stable energy supply for the development of economic, trade and investment cooperation, and supported the acceleration of the construction of the D-line of the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline.

The Parties noted that energy cooperation is an important part of sustainable development in the region.

The Parties noted the initiative to formulate a UN strategy for the development of low-carbon energy sources and to develop a roadmap for international cooperation on the priority development of hydrogen energy under the auspices of the United Nations.

10. All Parties are willing to continue to consolidate humanities cooperation in education, science, culture, tourism, archaeology, archives, sports, media, think tanks and other fields, promote exchanges between local provinces, states (cities), promote more local friendship, enrich the forms of youth exchanges, and carry out cooperation in joint archaeology, cultural heritage protection and restoration, museum exchanges, and recovery and return of lost cultural relics.

China invites the five Central Asian countries to participate in the implementation of the "Cultural Silk Road" plan to promote people-to-people bonds.

The Parties noted the importance of further strengthening tourism cooperation and jointly formulating China-Central Asia tourism routes.

All parties believe that they should further deepen health and medical cooperation, promote the construction of traditional Chinese medicine centers, carry out cooperation in herbal cultivation and processing, and build a "healthy Silk Road".

The Parties noted the importance of expanding cooperation in the fields of biosafety and the prevention of dangerous infectious diseases, and supported the initiative to establish a specialized international body for biosafety under the auspices of the United Nations.

All sides stressed the importance of strengthening people-to-people cooperation and promoting people-to-people bonds, and welcomed the launch of the People's Year of Culture and Art between China and Central Asian Countries and the China-Central Asia Youth Arts Festival.

All sides support the promotion of exchanges between universities and university students, and support the holding of youth cultural festivals, forums and sports events.

All relevant parties will actively promote the establishment of cultural centers in each other. China is willing to continue to provide government scholarships to Central Asian countries and organize professionals in related fields to participate in training, further study and exchange in China. All parties are willing to promote the development of vocational education in the "Luban Workshop".

All parties encourage the expansion of cooperation in high-tech fields such as artificial intelligence, smart cities, big data, and cloud computing.

The Parties reaffirmed the status of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement as the main channel and basic legal compliance of the international community in addressing climate change, and stressed that all countries should abide by the objectives, principles and institutional framework of the Convention and its Paris Agreement, especially the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, promote the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, and jointly build a fair, reasonable and win-win global climate governance system.

The Parties support closer cooperation in the field of climate change adaptation and sustainable development, and emphasize that joint implementation of green measures is an effective way to mitigate the impact of climate change.

All parties are willing to strengthen coordination among emergency management departments and deepen exchanges and cooperation in disaster prevention and mitigation, production safety, emergency rescue, earthquake science and technology.

China welcomes the Regional Plan for the Green Agenda for Central Asia adopted at the Consultative Meeting of Heads of State of Central Asia held in Chobon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan, on July 2022, 7, and supports the implementation of regional plans and projects in the field of green technologies.

Noting the importance of the resolution "Strengthening mountain glacier monitoring and research", submitted by Kyrgyzstan, adopted by the 2021st session of the General Conference of UNESCO in November 11, the resolution of the 41th session of the United Nations General Assembly proclaiming 76 the International Year for Sustainable Development of Mountains, and the resolution of the 2022th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sustainable Mountain Development proclaiming the implementation of the Five-Year Programme for Mountain Development for the period 77-2023, Highly valued the important role of the High-level Conference on Sustainable Development of Mountains held in New York on 2027 September 2022 in strengthening international cooperation and implementation on mountain issues.

The parties noted the importance of the United Nations General Assembly resolution submitted by Tajikistan on the proclamation of 2025 as the International Year of Glacier Protection, and highly valued the United Nations Water Conference co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands in New York from 2023 to 3 March 22.

The initiative to establish a United Nations-led Regional Centre for Climate Technologies in Central Asia in Ashgabat as a technology transfer platform for adaptation and mitigation was welcomed.

The parties note the importance of the special resolution of the General Assembly on the declaration of the Aral Sea region as an eco-innovation and science and technology zone initiated by Uzbekistan.

The Parties took note of the initiative to establish a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Regional Centre for Central Asia and Afghanistan in Almaty.

All sides believe that a stable, developing and prosperous Central Asia serves the common interests of the peoples of the six countries and the world.

All sides strongly condemn all forms of terrorism, separatism and extremism, and are willing to work together to combat the "three evils", drug trafficking, transnational organized crime, cybercrime and other activities, strengthen the exchange of security experience in key projects and large-scale events, ensure the safe and stable operation of strategic cooperation projects, and jointly respond to security threats.

The Parties note that a high-level meeting on international and regional security and border control cooperation on combating terrorism and preventing the movement of terrorists was held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on 2022-10 October 18.

The parties reaffirmed the important role of inclusive dialogue in developing state-to-state relations, and pointed out that Turkey's initiative to designate 2023 as the "Year of International Dialogue to Ensure Peace" is an important means to promote the international community to maintain peace and enhance mutual trust.

The parties welcomed the Samarkand Solidarity Initiative for Common Security and Prosperity, which aims to maintain peace and stability, carry out broad international cooperation and promote sustainable human development.

All parties are ready to continue to work with the international community to help the Afghan people maintain peace and stability, rebuild their social infrastructure and integrate into the regional and world economic system.

The importance of promoting an inclusive Government in Afghanistan with broad participation of all ethnic groups and political parties was stressed.

The initiative to establish an international negotiating team under the auspices of the United Nations was noted.

All sides support the establishment of Afghanistan as a peaceful, stable and prosperous country free from the threat of terrorism, war and narcotics.

The parties noted the need to make joint efforts to combat drug trafficking and to study the possibility of developing a joint action plan against drugs with the participation of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

All sides believe that security and development are prominent issues facing the international community today. Central Asian countries highly value and are willing to actively implement the global development initiative, global security initiative and global civilization initiative put forward by China, and believe that the above-mentioned initiatives are of great significance to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, maintaining world peace and security, and promoting the progress of human civilization.

All sides support the building of a peaceful, open, secure, cooperative and orderly cyberspace within the framework of the Global Data Security Initiative, jointly implement the China-Central Asian Five Data Security Cooperation Initiative, jointly promote the negotiation and formulation of a comprehensive international convention on combating the use of information and communication technologies for criminal purposes under the auspices of the United Nations, and jointly address threats and challenges to global information security.

All parties will firmly uphold the central and crucial role of the United Nations in maintaining international peace, security and sustainable development, promote the common values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom for all mankind, and oppose the politicization of human rights and other issues.

The parties reaffirmed their commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and stressed that the territorial integrity and sovereignty of States cannot be undermined. All parties firmly safeguard multilateralism and universally recognized international law and norms governing international relations, uphold international fairness and justice, and promote the development of the international order and global governance system in a just and reasonable direction.

All sides are willing to strengthen dialogue and cooperation within multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, and exchange views and coordinate positions on regional and international hotspot issues in a timely manner.

The Parties affirm the important role of the International Atomic Energy Agency in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and note the right of the States members of the Agency to participate fully in all decision-making processes of the Agency, to support the process of sovereign equality provided for in the Agency's Statute and to support the participation of Central Asian States in the relevant regional groups of the Agency.

All sides expressed their gratitude to China for holding the China-Central Asia Summit at a high level.

The parties agreed that the second China-Central Asia Summit will be hosted by Kazakhstan in 2025.

President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping

President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kasemjomart Tokayev

President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadr Zaparov

President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon

President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdymukhamedov

President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev

May 2023, 5 in Xi'an