Xi's Eurasia tour highlights China initiative
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 29, 2016
From June 17 to 22, General Secretary Xi Jinping of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), also Chinese president, visited three countries in two important regions, Serbia and Poland in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, cementing a time-tested friendship between China and those countries and charting a new era of win-win cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) talks with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic in Belgrade, Serbia, June 17. |
Although President Xi Jinping had many issues on the agenda during this latest overseas trip, his first priority was to advance the building of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. The Belt and Road Initiative dominated the interaction between Xi and his hosts in Serbia and Poland as well as Uzbekistan.
Both CEE and Central Asia are essential components of China's Belt and Road Initiative, which was proposed by Xi in 2013 to promote common prosperity across more than 60 countries along their routes in Asia, Africa and Europe through greater policy and infrastructure interconnectivity. In the meantime, CEE and Central Asian nations have a strong desire to cooperate with China for their own development. Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan were among the first to respond to this initiative.
President Xi also attended the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent from June 23 to 24.
Upgrading bilateral relations
Serbia is the first leg of Xi's three-nation tour. It is the first state visit by a Chinese head of state to the country in 32 years.
During the visit, China and Serbia upgraded their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership and signed a slew of cooperation deals covering industrial capacity, finance, infrastructure, trade, energy, telecommunications, science and technology, and culture and tourism that injected fresh vigor into the China-Serbia traditional friendship and will bring greater tangible benefits to both sides.
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic also decorated Xi with the Order of Republic of Serbia to extend gratitude to the Chinese president for his outstanding contributions to advancing bilateral ties.
In 2009, Serbia became the first CEE country to establish a strategic partnership with China.
Poland, one of the first countries that recognized and established diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China, is the second stop on Xi's Eurasia tour. It is the first state visit by a Chinese head of state in 12 years.
After talks between Xi and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, the two countries decided to lift their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership, showing a shared commitment to further growing bilateral cooperation and expanding exchange in various fields and levels.
Following three-hour-long talks in Tashkent on June 22, Xi and his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov signed a joint statement to elevate China-Uzbekistan relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership, outlining cooperation plans in the areas of political mutual trust and support, national and regional security, people-to-people exchange, and bilateral collaboration on international affairs.
Dovetailing development strategies
Serbia, Poland, and Uzbekistan were among the first countries to respond to China's Belt and Road Initiative.
To realize common development and prosperity, Serbia and China pledged to jointly promote the Belt and Road Initiative, seek synergy between Serbia's national development strategy and the initiative, and align Serbia's development with the cooperation between China, Central and Eastern European countries.
Located in the heart of Europe, Poland sees nearly all of the regular China-Europe freight trains, passing through the country before reaching the rest of Europe.
Xi reached agreements with Duda on promoting economic ties within China's Belt and Road and Poland's Amber Road frameworks, as the two countries seek new markets and frontiers for their development strategies.
While addressing the Uzbek Parliament, Xi invited Uzbekistan and other countries to jointly carry forward the Belt and Road Initiative in both breadth and depth, calling for building a "green, healthy, intelligent and peaceful" Silk Road.
"The old Silk Road allowed Europeans to get to know the Chinese civilization, but without contact with its creators. The new Silk Road enables not only the exchange of goods, but also facilitates interpersonal relations. It will allow us not only to learn what we look like, but also how we think. It will help us to get to know each other, understand each other and become friends," said Piotr Gadzinowski, a former member of the Polish Parliament.
China's trade with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative surpassed 1 trillion U.S. dollars in 2015, accounting for a quarter of its total foreign trade.
Cementing regional cooperation
"Chinese President Xi Jinping's visits (to Serbia and Poland) cannot be described as an isolated event but must be placed in the context of a systematic effort to forge China's relations with CEE. Xi, for instance, visited the Czech Republic in April 2016 while leaders of several CEE countries had already visited Beijing a few months ago," analyzed George N. Tzogopoulos, a lecturer at the European Institute in Nice.
The cooperation agreements Xi and Duda inked could effectively link the China initiated Belt and Road with Poland's Amber Road, bringing China closer to the doorsteps of Europe.
Duda even pledged that his country can "become the image ambassador of the Belt and Road Initiative in Europe."
At the Silk Road Forum and Poland-China Regional Cooperation and Business Forum, Xi called for a closer synergy of the China-CEE cooperation mechanism and the development of the Belt and Road, in a bid to forge lasting and practical China-CEE cooperation.
The China-CEE cooperation, in alignment with major initiatives by the European Union (EU), prompts the development of China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.
Both full members of the SCO, China and Uzbekistan vowed to resolutely crack down on "the three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism after Xi's visit, which will contribute to regional security and stability.
"China sees in Uzbekistan a reliable and supportive partner, and wishes to underpin the political relationship with solid and mutually beneficial economic links; Uzbekistan, without prejudice to her existing security commitments, clearly sees China as her key partner in the revival and underpinning of her own economic development and integration into the regional economic structure," noted Tim Collard, a columnist with China.org.cn.
Speaking at the 16th SCO Council of Heads of State meeting in Tashkent, Xi put forward a five-point proposal for the regional organization to consolidate unity and mutual trust, and deepen comprehensive cooperation.
The SCO summit decided to raise the regional cooperation to a qualitatively new level characterized by increased efficiency of cooperation in the spheres of politics, security, economy, and the development of cultural and humanitarian ties.
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