Astana, Jul 3 (EFE).- Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Tuesday that relations with China are in a “golden period of development” when he met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who is making his fifth state visit to the Central Asian republic.
“Kazakhstan attaches great importance to strengthening the good neighborliness and centuries-old friendship between our countries (…). We can say that our bilateral relations have entered a new golden period of development,” the Kazakh leader said.
He stressed that China is Kazakhstan’s largest trade and investment partner. Over the past 30 years trade between the two countries had increased a hundredfold, reaching a record 41 billion dollars last year.
“Regardless of how the international situation changes, our aspirations to preserve friendship with Kazakhstan, our determination to develop multi-faceted cooperation and our commitment to support each other on key issues will remain unchanged,” Xi said.
The Chinese leader also expressed the hope that the two countries would work together to build a more dynamic community with greater content for the “common destiny of mankind.”
According to Xi, in the current international situation, this task takes on a new relevance. For this reason, he said, positive efforts are needed to create stability in the region and around the world.
The Chinese president is to participate in the 24th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leaders summit on Thursday.
Xi is to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, who arrived in the Kazakh capital Wednesday morning.
The SCO was created to collaborate on issues of regional security, the fight against terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism. China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are members of the organization.
At the 24th SCO summit in Astana, Belarus is expected to become its 10th member. EFE
EFE