On 18-19 May the first China–Central Asia summit will be held in Xi’an, the administrative center of Shaanxi Province, which will become a new starting point for further successful cooperation between China and Turkmenistan in addressing urgent regional and global tasks, jointly achieving sustainable development goals, ensuring lasting peace, stability and security in the region and throughout the world the world. This was stated by the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Turkmenistan to China Parakhat Durdyev in an interview with the newspaper “People’s Daily” online.
The China–Central Asia Summit will demonstrate the determination to jointly build a common future in the interests of the development and prosperity of peoples
In 2022, during the third meeting of foreign ministers in the China–Central Asia format, the need to create a Chinese-Central Asian community of a common destiny was emphasized. On 27 April 2023, the Ministers of Central Asia and China held their fourth meeting in Xi’an. During this meeting, the Ministers once again stressed the important role of this format in strengthening political mutual trust, contacts and cooperation, developing mutually beneficial trade and economic partnership, enhancing connectivity and protecting common security.
As P. Durdyev noted, the four meetings of this format at the level of foreign ministers demonstrated the closeness or coincidence of the approaches of the participating countries to the problems of ensuring universal stability and security, countering terrorism, extremism and separatism, as well as new challenges and threats.
“Together with China, we stand for equality and justice in international affairs, for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and support the measures taken by the world community to effectively respond to global challenges. Along with the traditional types of threats within this format, we are ready to develop consolidated measures to counteract new types of threats, in particular to ensure information and biological security,” he stressed.
Both Turkmenistan and the People’s Republic of China advocate the creation of a solid security system in the region based on a multilateral balance of interests and commitment to political and diplomatic methods of solving emerging problems. “It would be appropriate to mention the essentially similar international initiatives of the leaders of our states – the global initiative “Dialogue – Guarantee of Peace” of President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov and the Global Security Initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping,” Durdyev added.
The Ambassador also expressed hope that the partnership in the China–Central Asia format will become an example of successful joint solution of urgent tasks of common development based on mutual trust and taking into account the interests of all participating countries.
Belt and Road Initiative connects vast spaces from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, contributing to improving the quality of life and well-being of peoples
Ambassador Durdyev noted the contribution of the BRI to the promotion of cooperation between China and Turkmenistan in various fields.
According to him, over the past 10 years, the initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping has demonstrated to the whole world its viability in achieving significant results in various areas of economic cooperation at the regional and global levels. In conjunction with the initiatives and development strategies of the countries of the region, it gives a powerful boost to economic development in Eurasia, forming interconnected production and technological cycles and industrial belts, contributing to the solution of many social problems, improving the quality of life and well-being of peoples.
Among the most important areas of cooperation within the framework of the BRI, Durdyev noted the strengthening of transport connectivity, which is a necessary condition for deepening partnership in all other spheres, including trade, energy, investment cooperation, industrial cooperation, cultural exchanges.
“Here we have a complete coincidence of interests and a desire to use the advantageous geographical position of Turkmenistan and the entire Central Asian region in the center of the Eurasian continent at the crossroads of transport routes in the East-West and North-South directions. The international transport and transit corridors passing through the territory of Turkmenistan in these directions are part of the “China – Central Asia – Europe” and “China –Central Asia – Middle East” transport corridors being created in the Eurasia region,” Durdyev said.
In addition, a striking example of practical cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road initiative is the construction and commissioning of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline at the end of 2009. The implementation of this project was an example of a truly partnership based on equality, awareness of mutual advantages, a large-scale vision of the prospects and opportunities that opened up with the start of the gas pipeline. This is the real, practical embodiment of the successful integration of the national strategic initiatives of the two states.
Cooperation between China and Turkmenistan contributes to the strengthening of international multimodal transport, the creation of a modern transport and logistics system
On 5-6 January 2023, at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov paid a state visit to China. During the talks, the sides reached mutual understanding on a wide range of issues of Chinese-Turkmen relations, including in the transport and communication spheres.
According to Durdyev, Turkmenistan, together with its partners, is currently creating an extensive network of combined transport, transit and logistics infrastructure along the East-West and North-South lines. In the future, it will include transit corridors reaching the regions of the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea Basin, and the Baltic States. This opens up an optimal overland route to European and Middle Eastern markets through the territory of Central Asia from the Asia-Pacific region.
The Ambassador noted that the volume of container traffic on the China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway is growing annually. An intergovernmental agreement on road transport is expected to be signed. The parties agreed to create mutually favorable conditions for the further development of air traffic.
“The issues of expanding transport cooperation are being fruitfully discussed within the framework of the Turkmen-Chinese Cooperation Committee. We have agreed to create a separate subcommittee on cooperation in the field of transport within the framework of this Committee. This will allow solving existing issues more specifically and promptly,” he added. ///People’s Daily, 16 May (Originally published at http://russian.people.com.cn/n3/2023/0516/c95181-20019143.html )