China's Xi in Kazakhstan to cement Central Asia ties

ASTANA

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Central Asian leaders at a summit in Kazakhstan on June 17, his second trip to the region in under a year as Beijing competes with Russia for influence there.

The summit in the Kazakh capital brings together Xi and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

The five countries of Central Asia have courted interest from major powers including China and the United States since becoming independent.

The region is rich in natural resources and strategically located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.

While Central Asian leaders continue to view Russia as a strategic partner, ties with Moscow have loosened since the war in Ukraine.

The five nations are taking advantage of the growing interest in their region and coordinating their foreign policies.

They regularly hold summits with China and Russia to present the region as a unified bloc and attract investment.

The "5+1" format high-level talks have also been organised with the European Union, the United States, Türkiye and other Western countries.

"The countries of the region are balancing between different centres of power, wanting to protect themselves from excessive dependence on one partner," Kyrgyz political scientist Nargiza Muratalieva told AFP.

China has now established itself as Central Asia's leading trading partner. Trade volume with the region was estimated at $95 billion in 2024.

That figure is far ahead of the European Union, around $64 billion according to the EU Council in 2023, and Russia, with $44 billion.

Central Asia is also an important target for China in its Belt and Road initiative, which uses huge infrastructure investments as a political and diplomatic lever.

Xi's visit to Kazakhstan will "[open] up more room for the joint construction of the Belt and Road," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.

Construction of the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China railway and the China-Tajikistan highway, which runs through the Pamir Mountains to Afghanistan, are among the planned investments.

New border crossings and "dry ports" have already been built to process trade.

"Neither Russia nor Western institutions are capable of allocating financial resources for infrastructure so quickly and on such a large scale, sometimes bypassing transparent procedures," said Muratalieva.

Developing transport corridors in Central Asia allows China to reduce delivery times by sending goods to Europe via the Caspian Sea, bypassing Russia.

Chinese companies are also increasingly present in Central Asia's energy sector, seeking contracts for gas in Turkmenistan, uranium in Kazakhstan and rare earths in Tajikistan, among others.

Kazakhstan said last week that Russia would lead the construction of its first nuclear power plant but that it wanted China to build the second.

"Central Asia is rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, uranium, gold and other minerals that the rapidly developing Chinese economy needs," Muratalieva said.

"Ensuring uninterrupted supplies of these resources, bypassing unstable sea routes, is an important goal of Beijing," the analyst added.