Beijing gathers heads of 5 former Soviet republics and stresses the importance of combating the “three evils”

Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Friday for “full exploitation” of the potential for cooperation between his country and Central Asia in the areas of trade, economy and industrial capacity.

Addressing heads of state of five former Soviet republics at an unprecedented summit, Xi urged the attendees to “fully tap the potential of traditional cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, industrial capacity, energy and transportation.”

In excerpts of his speech published by Xinhua, Xi stressed the need to develop “new engines of growth… such as finance, agriculture, poverty reduction, carbon emission reduction, health and digital innovation.”

This week, the Chinese president will host the first session of the “China-Central Asia Summit” since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992 between the giant Asian country and these five republics, namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Xi said the region and China should “take the lead” on this project and “deepen strategic mutual trust” in order to “maintain lasting friendship,” stressing the need to expand security cooperation to address what Beijing calls the “three evils” in the region:

separatist tendencies
terrorism
extremism

“The six countries should resolutely oppose foreign interference in the internal affairs of countries in the region and attempts to incite ‘color revolutions’,” said the Chinese president.

The summit in Beijing will coincide with a meeting of the Group of Seven nations in Hiroshima, which Zhou expects will focus on efforts to “counter China’s growing influence around the world.”

Beijing asserts that the volume of its trade with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan reached $70 billion in 2022 and recorded a growth of 22 percent during the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same quarter last year.

Central Asia has also become central to China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, the most significant geopolitical project of the Xi Jinping era.