Deepening Traditional Friendship and Promoting Mutually Beneficial Cooperation

——Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi talks about President Hu Jintao's visits to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan

From December 12 to 14, 2009, Chinese President Hu Jintao paid working visits to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. At the end of the visits, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi who accompanied Hu during the visits introduced to the accompanying journalists President Hu's current tour and its outcomes.

Yang said that Hu's tour, as an important diplomatic move, shows the great importance China attaches to developing ties with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. During the three days, President Hu attended a number of multilateral or bilateral events. Hu held separate talks with the heads of state of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and met with Uzbek President, reaching broad consensus on further building political trust, deepening pragmatic cooperation in all areas and coordinating closely in multilateral organizations. President Hu's tour was made at a historic moment as it coincides with the upcoming 18th anniversary of independence of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan & the 18th anniversary of China-Kazakhstan, China-Turkmenistan diplomatic relations. During the visits to the two countries, President Hu was warmly welcomed by the two governments and peoples and the tour achieved fruitful outcomes.

I.　Promoting China-Kazakhstan Strategic Partnership for New Progress

Yang said during his visit to Kazakhstan, President Hu reached agreement with his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev, on promoting the Sino-Kazakh strategic partnership. Hu made positive comments on the outcome of the development of China-Kazakhstan relations and made the five proposals of strengthening political mutual trust, deepening cooperation in the energy sector, advancing cooperation in non-resources sectors, enhancing financial cooperation, and expanding people-to-people and cultural cooperation. Hu expressed China's willingness to work with Kazakhstan, support each other on issues concerning their core interests and push forward practical cooperation in various areas. Nazarbayev fully agreed with President Hu's important views on developing bilateral ties, saying that he highly valued the important role of China's good-neighborly foreign policy in promoting peace, security and development in Asia and the world. The two leaders agreed to further promote practical cooperation between China and Kazakhstan in various fields and strengthen cooperation in important organizations and frameworks such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA) so as to push forward China-Kazakhstan strategic partnership of good-neighborly friendship and mutual trust, Yang said.

Yang said China and Central Asian countries enjoy geographical proximity and cultural affinity with profound traditional friendship and close personnel exchanges. Expanding humanities exchange was high on the agenda of Hu's visit, said Yang. Hu announced the doubling of the number of annual scholarships for Kazakh students to study in China from 100 to 200 from next year on, and pledged relevant departments of the two countries will continue to work closely to well run the two Confucius Institutes in Kazakhstan and ensure the success of exchange of visits of cultural groups. The two presidents also met with the students and teachers from the Confucius Institute of the Eurasian National University of Kazakhstan. While donating books to the students and teachers, Hu encouraged them to make new contributions to cultural exchanges between the two countries. President Hu's current visit has significant and far-reaching impact on promoting China-Kazakhstan cultural exchanges, deepening understanding and friendship between both peoples and enhancing bilateral friendly cooperative relations.

Yang said President Hu's visit to Kazakhstan has made new achievement in advancing cooperation in non-resources sectors. The two agreed to step up efforts in carrying out their cooperation plans in non-resources sectors and in promoting the implementation of the first batch of their cooperation projects. They pledged joint efforts in expanding the scale and improving the economic returns of their non-resources cooperation so as to push forward practical cooperation in an all-round manner. Both sides signed a number of bilateral documents on cooperation in financial, economic, trade, energy and other areas.

Energy cooperation is an important part of China-Kazakhstan all-round pragmatic cooperation.　Both leaders attended the completion ceremony of the China-Kazakhstan natural gas pipeline. They highly valued the great significance of the project to the development of the two countries and the whole region, emphasizing the need to well implement the operation and maintenance of the China-Kazakhstan natural gas pipeline.

President Hu's current visit to Kazakhstan was made against the background of the ongoing global financial crisis and the slow world economic recovery. The Kazakh side in particular pointed out amid the global financial crisis, China has not only striven to maintain its own economic growth momentum, but also offered important financial support to Kazakhstan and help the country overcome the impact of the crisis, for which the Kazakh side is thankful. The two sides agreed to speed up implementation of a 10-billion-U.S. dollar loan agreement between China and Kazakhstan to create conditions for deepening bilateral cooperation.

II. Deepening and Expanding China-Turkmenistan Pragmatic Cooperation in All Areas

Yang said since China and Turkmenistan established diplomatic ties 17 years ago, bilateral relations have been developing smoothly. China attaches great importance to ties with Turkmenistan and deems it a reliable friend and important partner. During his visit to Turkmenistan, President Hu held talks with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, exchanging extensive, in-depth views and reaching important consensus on furthering China-Turkmenistan friendly cooperative relations. Hu raised a four-point proposal on enhancing pragmatic cooperation between the two countries. Hu urged the two countries to start as soon as possible the mechanism of Sino-Turkmen cooperation committee so as to better guide and coordinate practical cooperation between the two countries. He suggested the two countries should continue to deepen cooperation in the energy sector, secure smooth operation of the China-Central Asia gas pipeline and further advance bilateral cooperation in the natural gas sector so as to drive the development of economic, trade and other relevant sectors of the two countries. Hu urged both sides to enhance cooperation in non-resources sectors including transport, communications, building materials and infrastructure development, study and draft a plan of middle- and long-term cooperation in non-resources fields and earnestly implement the credit projects they agreed upon by accelerating the inauguration of relevant projects.

The Turkmen side fully agreed with Hu's proposals for developing bilateral ties, saying Hu's visit is of special significance. Turkmenistan attaches great importance to China and its relations with China. The long-term strategic partnership between the two countries is based on a high degree of mutual trust, mutual respect and friendship. Despite the changes in international situation, the Turkmen government and people will always firmly push forward cooperation with China. The Turkmen side welcomed Chinese investments in oil and gas, transportation and other sectors, and sees promising prospects in cooperation with China in areas of chemical industry, building materials, science and technology, culture and education. Both sides agreed to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in culture, sports, education, press, health, tourism and other humanities fields and actively promote contact between their art groups, non-governmental organizations, media organizations and academic institutes in a bid to continuously consolidate the foundation of friendship between the two countries and boost bilateral cooperation in all areas. Hu announced the decision to double the number of annual scholarships offered by the Chinese government to Turkmen students studying in China from the current 45 to 90 as of 2010 and also expressed China's readiness to provide assistance to Turkmenistan on Chinese language teaching, which was widely acclaimed by the Turkmen people from all walks of life. President Hu also donated books to the National Library of Turkmenistan. Both sides signed bilateral cooperation agreements concerning taxation, energy, communications, textile, transport and agriculture.

Yang said during his visit to Turkmenistan, Hu and his counterparts from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan jointly attended an inauguration ceremony of the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline on the right bank of the Amu Darya River. Hu considered the pipeline a model of solidarity and mutually beneficial cooperation of the four countries, saying that it fully reflects the four countries' aspiration to enhance regional economic cooperation and achieve common development. Hu made positive comments on the fruitful outcomes the four countries have made in actively conducting energy cooperation based on the principle of mutual complementarity, equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. The four leaders believed that the pipeline project would bring benefits to China and the Central Asian region, pledging that they are ready to deepen energy cooperation and push for common development of all countries in the region. Yang said the start-up of the pipeline indicates that cooperation between China and Turkmenistan has reached a new level.

III. Promoting China-Uzbekistan Friendly Cooperative Partnership

China sees Uzbekistan as an important cooperative partner in Central Asia and it is China's firm policy to safeguard and develop its relations with Uzbekistan, Yang said.

Hu met with Uzbek President Islam Karimov in Turkmenistan. Both sides agreed to push for new progress of China-Uzbekistan relations. President Hu put forward important suggestions on deepening China-Uzbekistan pragmatic cooperation. Hu said China is ready to work with Uzbekistan to ensure a safe and smooth operation of the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline, and implement the agreements concerning the expansion of bilateral cooperation in oil and gas. He urged the two countries to deepen cooperation in developing mineral resources and carry out the relevant agreements reached by the two sides. The long-term, stable, practical and mutually beneficial trade relations shall be consolidated, he said. The Chinese leader said the role of the intergovernmental economic and trade cooperation commission shall be brought into full play and agreements reached at the eighth meeting of the China-Uzbekistan joint economic and trade commission shall also be implemented. Hu pointed out that cooperation should be promoted particularly in the fields of economy and trade, transportation, telecommunications, light industry and agriculture. The Uzbek side spoke highly of Uzbekistan-China relations and actively responded to President Hu's important proposals on deepening bilateral pragmatic cooperation, holding that the development of bilateral relations is not only conducive to the two countries, but is also of great significance to maintaining peace and stability in the Central Asian region. Karimov said China is a most reliable and trust-worthy friend of Uzbekistan. In response to the worsening of the international financial crisis, the Chinese government has adopted a series of effective measures to resolve the difficulties faced by China's economy and played an important role in promoting the growth of the world economy, which Uzbekistan highly appreciates. Against the backdrop of profound and complicated changes in today's world, Uzbekistan is ready to strengthen cooperation with China in various fields, the Uzbek side added.

Yang said mutual support in issues concerning each other's core interests is the important political basis for the development of China's relations with the three Central Asian countries. Leaders from the three Central Asian nations reiterated their adherence to the one-China policy and voiced support for China's efforts to safeguard its state sovereignty and territorial integrity. They also vowed to work with China to strengthen security cooperation, both bilaterally and in the framework of the SCO, to fight terrorism, separatism and extremism, so as to safeguard security and stability and ensure common development and prosperity of the region. Central Asian leaders also applauded China's important and active role in handling major international issues, and said they wished to advance cooperation with China in international and regional multilateral organizations including the United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Yang said China has been consistent in adopting a foreign policy of treating its neighbors well and as partners. Under new circumstances, it is in the interests of both China and Central Asia to further deepen traditional friendship with Central Asian countries and boost mutually beneficial and pragmatic cooperation in a variety of fields. President Hu's visit will surely exert important and far-reaching influence on further developing the relations between China and Central Asian countries and boosting regional peace, stability and prosperity, Yang said.