Chinese President Xi Jinping left this Tuesday for Kazakhstan, where he will participate in the summit of leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which will also be attended by by the Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
During the event, Xi “will exchange views with leaders of participating countries on deepening cooperation as well as key international and regional issues,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao said. Ning, at a press conference, on Monday.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization aims to collaborate in regional security, the fight against terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism, and integrates China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Belarus is expected to become the 10th member at the summit in Astana.
After the meeting, China will assume the presidency of the organization until 2025, with the aim of “contributing to lasting peace and common prosperity in the world” and “benefiting the region”, according to with Mao.
In May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Xi and Putin would meet in Kazakhstan, on the sidelines of the summit, in the second meeting in about two months, after the Russian leader’s visit to China, in mid-May.
During Putin’s visit to China, the two leaders showed consensus on global issues such as the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, distancing themselves from Western positions.
Xi and Putin stressed that “a political solution to the ‘crisis’ in Ukraine is the right direction” and pointed to the “extreme urgency of finding a way out of the situation in Palestine.”
Chinese analysts cited by the Global Times, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, stated that the timing of the summit and the likely meeting between Xi and Putin are “especially opportune, given the drastic changes in the situation the international and the intensification of containment and confrontation between blocs instigated by Western countries”.
“The visit sends a message to the Western world that there are many voices from emerging economies that need to be heard and represented, and that the dominant trend of global cooperation will not be reversed by their obstruction o”, said researcher Zhou Rong, quoted by the newspaper.
As part of the trip, Xi will also make a state visit to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.
Kazakhstan “presents itself as a friendly neighbor and an integral and permanent strategic partner of China” and relations between the two countries “have maintained a dynamic of healthy development and are vel”, said Mao.
In May, Kazakh Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that China and Kazakhstan “share similar positions on many issues on the international and regional agenda.”
This will be Xi’s fifth state visit to Kazakhstan.
The Chinese President will next travel to Tajikistan, “a friendly neighbor and an integral strategic partner of China”, said the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Last year, Xi hosted the leaders of the five former Soviet Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – in the central Chinese city of Xian, where he pledged economic support , infrastructure and security for the region.
In recent years, China has strengthened ties with Central Asia, a vast and resource-rich region that Beijing considers crucial to expanding trade routes and energy security. as well as for maintaining stability in the Xinjiang region, where numerous Muslim ethnic minority groups live.
China’s influence in the area clashes with Russia, which maintains political, economic and military power in the region with alliances and bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
