Xi to attend SCO summit, visit Kazakhstan, Tajikistan

Photo SCO: VCG

From Tuesday to Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the 24th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana and, at the invitation of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of the Republic of Kazakhstan and President Emomali Rahmon of the Republic of Tajikistan, pay state visits to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Sunday.

The upcoming visits will have big ramifications amid growing geopolitical tensions, widespread U.S. decoupling attempts that are fragmenting the world and Western attempts to sow discord within the cooperation framework, observers said, while highlighting China's significant contribution to the SCO summit. help build a more “cohesive and influential” regional community that overcomes geopolitical rivalries and fosters mutual trust.

The state visits to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan also underscore that China attaches great importance to neighborhood diplomacy and is ready to inject new impetus into China-Central Asia relations, where the five countries are China's strategic partners, observers said.

Considering that Kazakhstan is the country where the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed and dynamic cooperation under the BRI has transformed the landlocked Central Asian region into a transportation hub regional vital, foreign scholars expect that these visits can spark bilateral and regional cooperation between China and Central Asia to reach deeper and wider areas, for example by building more logistics corridors that can promote further regional integration and development.

Highlights of the SCO Summit

The SCO summit will be held in Astana on July 3-4, according to a statement on the SCO website. China will take over the rotating chairmanship of the SCO after the summit.

The timing of the SCO summit is particularly appropriate given the drastic changes in the international situation and the intensification of Western-instigated bloc containment and confrontation, according to Chinese analysts.

“This sends a message to the Western world that there are many different voices from emerging economies that need to be heard and represented, and the general trend of global cooperation will not be reversed by their obstruction,” said Zhou Rong, a researcher principal at the Chongyang Institute of Financial Studies of Renmin University of China, told the Global Times this weekend.

He highlighted the importance of the SCO summit in demonstrating unity among member states and inspiring new collective approaches to confront emerging challenges and conflicts.

According to the Astana Times, Kazakhstan proposed to develop its SCO initiative on global unity for just peace and harmony at the Astana summit. Tokayev noted that the adoption of the document “will contribute to the consolidation of international efforts aimed at resolving conflicts in various regions of the world.”

Observers said the SCO initiative aligns with China's proposed Global Security Initiative and reflects the two countries' constructive and consistent contributions to maintaining regional stability and peace.

Gulnar Shaimergenova, director of the Center for Chinese Studies in Kazakhstan, told the Global Times on Sunday that the contribution of Chinese wisdom to the SCO is also evident in other initiatives proposed by China, such as the BRI, which have created synergies with the SCO agenda in terms of promoting economic cooperation and infrastructure development. She predicts that China will play a greater role in promoting dialogue and mutual understanding, as well as strengthening cohesion among SCO members.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he hopes his country will join the SCO at the Astana summit, according to media reports. This would mark the new round of expansion of the organization's membership, after Iran officially joined the SCO last year.

Analysts said the expansion would be a “historic breakthrough” that would bring the SCO's membership to a double-digit level of 10, underscoring the organization's growing influence on the international stage in an international environment. complex.

“SCO cooperation establishes a paradigm for a new type of international relations in the spirit of mutual respect, justice, equality and mutually beneficial cooperation. Its growing relevance in the global context reflects the common desire for this type of relationship and is a step back from the hegemonic abuses of the United States,” Li Xin, director of the Institute of Eurasian Studies at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times.

Bolat Nurgaliyev, former SCO Secretary General, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview that the SCO is also proof that countries with different economic and political systems can cooperate quite harmoniously, reconcile their sometimes divergent interests and reach a common approach to addressing common challenges and risks.

Along with the increase in membership, economic complementarity among member countries will see significant improvement, as will the potential for broader regional collaboration, making it another hot topic of discussion at the SCO summit, analysts noted.

Furthermore, they predict that the fight against terrorism will be at the top of the agenda of the Astana summit.

Russia and Pakistan have been hit by terrorist attacks this year, and SCO members could discuss face to face how to coordinate their security policies to resolutely combat the “three forces” of terrorism, separatism and extremism in the region, Zhou noted.

Central Asia Tours

It was in Kazakhstan that the concept of the BRI was first proposed in 2013. In 2022, President Xi made his first post-pandemic overseas trip to Kazakhstan, marking the start of new “30 years golden” of bilateral cooperation. Since May 2023, Tokayev has visited China three times, demonstrating a frequent exchange of visits at the highest level between China and Kazakhstan.

“During these visits, our leaders reached important agreements and coordinated political strategies, which should be considered exemplary, as they reflect the highest level of mutual trust and goodwill. That is why the upcoming visit of the top Chinese leader to Astana will certainly become another brick in the foundations of the beautiful edifice of Kazakh-Chinese friendship,” Nurgaliyev said.

Currently, the five Central Asian states are strategic partners of China. Among them, the China-Kazakhstan partnership has reached one of the highest levels of a permanent comprehensive strategic partnership, while China and Tajikistan have also established a comprehensive strategic partnership. China and Central Asia are also committed to building a closer China-Central Asia community of shared destiny.

These visits show that China emphasizes neighborhood diplomacy, experts said.

“The visits to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan will consolidate ties and propel China-Central Asia relations to a new high,” Li Xin said, adding that the strong relations are based on mutual support of core interests, the mutual respect, equality and openness.

Central Asia, one of the key regions for the implementation of the BRI, offers a striking example of how China's proposed global public good has transformed the landlocked region into a land-connected region, the transforming into a bridge connecting Eurasian Europe. continent. In this context, strengthening cooperation between China and Central Asia within the framework of the BRI and the SCO is important for the development of the region in the areas of economy, transport, clean energy and technology, analysts said.

Li expects that agreements on more infrastructure connectivity projects could be reached during the state visits, including the construction of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Corridor route, which could offer the most cost-effective passage from China to Europe amid growing geopolitical tensions.