Global Impact: Xi Jinping rolls out the red carpet for Central Asian leaders as G7 vows to address China challenge

Name: China announces US$3.8 billion Belt and Road expansion in Central Asia
Uploaded: 2023-05-29T06:00:18.000Z
Duration: 2 min 58 s
Description: China announces US$3.8 billion Belt and Road expansion in Central Asia

Global Impact is a weekly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world

In this edition, we look back at what was achieved during the China-Central Asia Summit

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President Xi Jinping chairs the first China-Central Asia summit. Photo: Xinhua

Zhuang Pinghuiin Beijing

Published: 2:00pm, 29 May 2023

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While state leaders of the wealthy Group of Seven (G7) and their counterparts from guest nations gathered in Hiroshima last week to announce their plans to counter China’s “malign” practices and tackle economic coercion, President Xi Jinping was courting five Central Asian nations with promises of deals, boosting law enforcement, security and defence capability construction.

By the time Xi had wrapped up chairing of the inaugural China-Central Asia Summit, which took place in the symbolic city of Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, a grand plan that involved a total of 26 billion yuan (US$3.7 billion) of financial support and grants had been announced.

Xi also called for the expansion of economic and trade ties and energy cooperation, including speeding up the construction of line D of the China-Central Asia gas pipeline.

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China announces US$3.8 billion Belt and Road expansion in Central Asia

He also proposed establishing a China-Central Asia energy development partnership, expanding trade in oil and gas, pursuing cooperation throughout the energy industrial chains and strengthening cooperation on new energy and peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Leaders from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, who were holding their first-ever in person meetings under the new mechanism since establishing diplomatic ties in 1992, also pledged mutual support for each other’s core interests and approach to development.

Together, leaders of the six countries also stressed the importance of improving connectivity in the region, including better transport links between Central Asia, Southeast Asia and the rest of the continent.

The summit came at a time when China is seeking to break US-led “containment, encirclement and suppression”, a term raised by Xi during his discussion with delegates of China’s top legislature in March.