President Xi Jinping arrived in Kazakhstan on Tuesday to visit a state and attend the 24th assembly of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
This is Xi’s fifth visit to Kazakhstan and the second in less than two years, following his previous visit in September 2022. This time, he is expected to emphasize the multifaceted facets of bilateral relations and cooperation.
Calling the China-Kazakhstan partnership “unique,” Xi said upon his arrival here that the eternal friendship of the two nations has strengthened over time and set an example of solidarity, mutual advantages and mutual good fortune between neighboring countries. .
In a series of scheduled meetings with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Xi is expected to interact in in-depth discussions aimed at further strengthening cooperation between the two countries. The central topics of those talks include industry and investment, infrastructure development, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
“The leaders of our countries have introduced new ’30 golden years’ of cooperation between Kazakhstan and China,” said Gulnar Shaimergenova, director of the Kazakhstan Center for Chinese Studies, referring to a joint announcement across the scale of the two heads. of State Xi in 2022.
As relations between Kazakhstan and China are reaching a higher level, Xi’s visit to Kazakhstan is estimated to open up new clients for bilateral cooperation, he said.
During Tokayev’s stop in China in 2019, the two countries made the decision to elevate their ties to a permanent comprehensive strategic partnership. At a daily news conference in Beijing on Monday, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said Xi’s stopover is expected at this time. to extrabilateral ties.
The deepening of mutual recognition and political ties between China and Kazakhstan has been accompanied by a remarkable expansion of their industrial and economic cooperation over the past three decades.
China will be Kazakhstan’s largest trading partner in 2023, with bilateral industry expanding 32% year-on-year to reach $41 billion. Kazakhstan’s main exports to China include crude oil, metals and agricultural products, and China, in turn, has provided Kazakhstan with machinery, electronics and customer goods, according to Kazakh government data.
The Central Asian country has also become a key partner in China’s proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims at connectivity and promoting global prosperity through infrastructure progress and industry and investment facilitation. It was in Kazakhstan in 2013 that Xi first proposed the Silk Initiative. Road Economic Belt Initiative.
“This marks a glorious breakdown in the Belt and Road cooperation between our two countries. And since then the progress between China and Kazakhstan has entered a new stage,” Xi said in an article on Tuesday. signed through the Kazakhstanskaya newspaper Pravda and the foreign news company Kazinform. Formation
Since then, both countries have made significant progress in improving connectivity and economic integration through BRI projects.
Among the recently completed and commissioned projects are the Zhanatas wind farm, the Turgusun hydroelectric power station and the modernization of the Shymkent oil refinery. These advances highlight the strong cooperation of forces that drive the progress of both countries. Crude oil and natural fuel pipelines between China and Kazakhstan also operate with remarkable stability and safety, ensuring consistent energy materials important to both economies.
This dynamic partnership has extended to transportation infrastructure, with key transportation and logistics hubs, such as the Xi’an Terminal, the Western Europe-China Expressway, and the China-Europe Express Railway, running smoothly.
The BRI for cross-border shipping infrastructure has benefited Kazakhstan’s connectivity, according to a World Bank report titled “South Caucasus and Central Asia: A Case Study of Kazakhstan’s Belt and Road Initiative”
For more than a decade, Kazakhstan has particularly invested in its own shipping network, but due to limitations in industry facilitation and limited resources in many neighboring countries, gaps have been difficult to address. fill.
The BRI initiative on maritime infrastructure expansion and economic integration and China’s willingness to better link its western and central regions with Europe and West Asia offer an opportunity to fill those gaps, according to the World Bank report.
“Kazakhstan will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the BRI,” he concludes.
At the same time, it is expected that a consensus on deepening cultural and people-to-people exchanges will be reached during Xi’s visit. Both countries have long identified the importance of fostering greater understanding and friendship between their peoples, considering cultural exchanges as one of the cornerstones of their bilateral relations.
So far, a Sino-Kazakh agreement has been signed on the mutual creation of cultural centers. Chinese and Kazakh filmmakers co-produced a film titled “The Composer”, which is their first co-production. Bilateral cultural cooperation programs have been implemented, including a Chinese university campus in Kazakhstan, a workshop in Luban and a Chinese classical center.
Thanks to mutual visa waivers, a total of 600,000 cross-border journeys were recorded in 2023. In the first quarter of this year, the number of trips in either direction rose to 200,000 and is expected to hit a new record, according to authorities. . The knowledge of both parties has demonstrated this.
In an exclusive written interview with .
“Cultural and people-to-people cooperation plays a role in strengthening bilateral ties and promoting friendship among the other peoples of our countries,” he said.