High-level talks bear fruit

Chinese-Uzbek bond mutually beneficial

President Xi Jinping expressed on Tuesday China's readiness to work with Uzbekistan to implement more mutually beneficial cooperation projects to support the development of both countries, and jointly build a more substantive and dynamic China-Uzbekistan community with a shared future.

China and Uzbekistan are witnessing a robust and comprehensive expansion of cooperation across various fields, Xi said when meeting with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Astana, Kazakhstan, on the sidelines of the second China-Central Asia Summit.

China is willing to strengthen the alignment of development strategies and the exchange of governance experience with Uzbekistan, he said.

The two countries should introduce more measures to promote trade liberalization and facilitation, scale up bilateral trade and investment, and advance the high-quality construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway to establish a multidimensional connectivity network, Xi said.

He called on the two sides to expand pragmatic cooperation in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, new energy, smart agriculture and public health, and strengthen cooperation in culture, poverty alleviation, law enforcement and security.

Xi called for joint efforts to crack down on terrorism, separatism and extremism, as well as address new threats and challenges, in order to safeguard regional peace and stability.

The two sides should also enhance coordination on multilateral platforms, such as the China-Central Asia cooperation mechanism and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, jointly uphold international fairness and justice, and safeguard the international economic and trade order, he added.

Noting that bilateral relations have reached the highest level in history, Mirziyoyev said that Uzbekistan values its friendly ties with China.

He expressed gratitude for China's longstanding and selfless support for Uzbekistan's economic and social development, saying that the country is willing to strengthen exchanges with China on governance experience and study China's experience in poverty alleviation.

Uzbekistan would like to enhance bilateral cooperation in high technology, connectivity, agriculture and green energy to promote the high-quality development of bilateral relations, Mirziyoyev said.