China welcomes five former Soviet republics to Central Asian summit

China’s President Xi Jinping has welcomed the leaders of five Central Asian states to a two-day summit with a spectacular opening ceremony in the northwestern city of Xi’an.

Mr Xi stood with his wife Peng Liyuan alongside the leaders of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to watch the ceremony at Tang Paradise, a theme park built on the site of a 1,000-year-old imperial site.

Hundreds of performers dressed in Tang Dynasty costumes took part in the short ceremony before Mr Xi hosted the other leaders at a banquet.

[ Growing Chinese influence on ex-Soviet republics reinforces domestic security agenda ]

[ Central Asia emerging cautiously from the shadow of Russia ]

[ EU attempts tough balancing act on China ]

“Despite changes in the international landscape, we have always treated each other with respect, enjoyed good-neighbourliness and mutual support and pursued mutual benefit,” he told them. “Our relations have experienced historic leaps from good-neighbourly ties to strategic partnerships, and now to a community with a shared future.”

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Mr Xi held bilateral meetings with each of the leaders on Thursday ahead of Friday’s plenary session, which is expected to end with the signing of a joint document. The summit, the first in-person meeting of its kind, reflects China’s expanding economic and diplomatic footprint in the five former Soviet republics at a time when Russia’s influence in the region is waning.

The summit comes as a senior Chinese diplomat is in Europe as part of an effort to bring about a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Li Hui, Beijing’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, met Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Wednesday and he will visit Moscow, Berlin, Paris and Brussels in the coming days.

“There is no panacea for defusing the crisis. All parties need to do their part to build up trust and create conditions for ceasefire and peace talks. China stands ready to work on the basis of the document of China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis, seek out the broadest common ground among the international community for settling the crisis, and contribute our part to an early ceasefire and restoration of peace. China has played a constructive role in alleviating the humanitarian situation in Ukraine in our own way and will continue to provide help to Ukraine as much as possible,” said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Thursday.

Mr Wang rejected the suggestion that Ukraine should join Nato, saying it should not become the frontier in a major power confrontation.

“To strengthen or even expand military groups is not a viable way to ensure the security of a region. One country’s security should not be achieved at the expense of the security of other countries. We hope that all parties will seek to achieve common, comprehensive, co-operative and sustainable security, and build a balanced, effective and durable security architecture through dialogue and consultation and on the basis of respecting each other’s legitimate security concerns, so as to realise peace and lasting security in Europe,” he said.