On December 15, 2005, Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang met with the joint press delegation from Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Shen briefed the press delegation on the development of the relations between China and Central Asian countries. He said that China neighbors with Central Asian countries and the friendship between both sides goes back to ancient times. The people of the Chinese nation and all Central Asian nationalities learned from each other's strong points to close the gap and supplied each other's needs through the Silk Road in history. Since the establishment of their diplomatic ties, the traditional friendship between China and Central Asian countries has been full of vigor and vitality with frequent exchanges of high-level visits and the cooperation and exchanges in the areas of politics, economy and humanities have been steadily expanded. Both sides share identical interest and have conducted effective cooperation in jointly combating the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism and safeguarding regional security and stability. Both sides have also kept close cooperation within the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other multilateral frameworks and made positive contributions to promoting regional and world peace, stability and development.

Shen took questions from the journalists on the relations between China and all the Central Asian countries, as well as personnel, educational and cultural exchanges, indicating that China would like to strengthen media exchanges and cooperation with all the Central Asian countries and build up mutual understanding and friendship between the people of both sides.

The 17 members of the joint press delegation from the four Central Asian countries visited China at the invitation of the Information Depart of the Foreign Ministry and they will also visit Guangxi and Shanghai.