The leaders of China and Central Asia gathered in Astana earlier this week for the second China-Central Asia summit marking an important milestone in Sino-Central Asian relations. While China’s engagement with its Central Asian neighbors has been dismissed as largely symbolic and lacking substance, Beijing’s consistent interaction and positive engagement with the region alone demonstrates a policy that Western states have yet to replicate.

The inaugural Central Asian Summit was hosted by President Xi Jinping in May 2023 in the ancient Chinese imperial capital of Xi’an, a prominent city along the Silk Road.   This first summit was significant in that the Central Asian heads of states subscribed to a “Global Security Initiative,” Beijing’s reinterpretation of international governance. Xi pledged a further $3.7 billion in funding, on top of the $64 billion invested over the past three decades, to develop the Belt and Road Initiative.  In addition, all sides agreed to creating a biennial “China-Central Asia Summit Mechanism,” with the gathering in Astana demonstrating Beijing’s efforts to institutionalize its presence in Central Asia.

“Our cooperation is rooted in more than 2,000 years of friendly exchanges,” noted President Xi Jinping in his keynote speech. “We view each other as priority partners and share development opportunities together. We accommodate each other’s interests, and work to build a win-win and symbiotic relationship.”

The summit culminated with the six member states signing a “Treaty of Permanent Good-Neighborliness," reaffirming calls for the peaceful resolution of disputes as well as the renunciation of the use of force and threats to use force.  Beyond the usual diplomatic pleasantries, China pledged $209 million in grant assistance to Central Asia supporting “livelihood and development projects of common concern.” China also plans to offer 3,000 training opportunities to Central Asian students over the next two years, further spreading its soft power throughout the region. 

Since the first summit, China’s trade with Central Asia surpassed $70 billion in 2022 and $90 billion in 2023. According to China’s General Administration of Customs, total trade with the region has grown by 10.4% in the first five months of this year. Beijing has long supplanted Moscow as Central Asia’s top trading partner. 

Beijing has also made notable progress in improving people-to-people ties with Central Asia. In December last year, China and Uzbekistan introduced mutual 30-day visa-free travel following China and Kazakhstan’s mutual visa exemptions in 2023. China also announced last year that it will provide 1,500 training opportunities and 600 additional scholarships for Central Asian students. Meanwhile, according to the China-Global South project, an increasing number of Chinese students are now looking to pursue graduate studies in Central Asia.  

Bilateral meetings held between President Xi with his Central Asian counterparts illustrate mutual policy priorities and China’s ability to tailor its engagement with the region: 

Kazakhstan

President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed 24 agreements with Xi on areas of cooperation ranging from energy, aerospace, and digitalization, to intellectual property and medicine. 

China’s National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) is set to lead a consortium with Kazatomprom to develop nuclear power plants in Kazakhstan. This will be a separate initiative to the Russian Rosatom-led consortium with Kazakhstan. Additionally, CNCC, Xiamen Wanli Stone, and Satpayev Institute of Geological Sciences signed an agreement to jointly explore cross-border uranium extraction sites. 

The China Development Bank pledged one billion dollars of credit to the Development Bank of Kazakhstan to support Sino-Kazakh projects. In 2024, bilateral trade with China reached $30 billion making it Kazakhstan’s second-largest trading partner in both exports and imports. 

Kyrgyzstan 

Agreements between Kyrgyzstan and China focused primarily on water management, technology, and trade. This included the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries on the joint establishment of an Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Center within the framework of the Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation organization. 

Trade turnover between Kyrgyzstan and China reached $5.5 billion in April this year. As of 2024, Kyrgyzstan continues to run a massive trade deficit of $19.9 billion with China. 

Uzbekistan

President Xi paid particular attention to further the development of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railway in his discussions with President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Construction of the CKU was launched in December 2024, a project that has been under discussion since 1997.  The 523-kilometer railway is expected to handle up to 15 million tons of cargo annually and will play a vital role in the development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.

Chinese-Uzbek bilateral trade reached $14 billion last year with the portfolio of investment projects exceeding $60 billion.

Tajikistan 

President Xi and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon agreed to expand the scale of bilateral trade and investment. Xi called on further cooperation in law enforcement and security to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism. The two sides signed the “2030 Program of Trade and Economic Cooperation” which was followed by several Memorandums of Understanding, including an agreement to establish twin-city relations between Sughd region of Tajikistan and China’s Shaanxi Province. 

On the first day of the China-Central Asia Summit, China Southern Airlines inaugurated its first direct commercial air route between Beijing and Dushanbe. 

In 2024, trade turnover between China and Tajikistan reached $3.9 billion. Tajikistan’s total external debt stands at $3.2 billion, around 27 percent of its GDP. Dushanbe owes $900 million to China, making Beijing Dushanbe’s largest creditor. 

Turkmenistan 

Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedov expressed his willingness to expand energy cooperation with China and increase natural gas exports to China. In the first half of 2024, Turkmenistan supplied China with $4 billion worth of gas. The pipeline connecting Turkmenistan and China has the capacity of 55 bcm. 

In 2024, bilateral trade between the two countries was valued at $10.6 billion, an 11% increase from the year before. Turkmenistan is the only Central Asian state with a trade surplus with China.

China-Central Asian Relations reaching new heights?

The outcomes of the second China-Central Asia summit are indicative of Beijing’s ability to maintain consistent engagement with the region. While the first summit might have produced more rhetoric than substance, the same cannot be said of the recent gathering in Astana. It should be expected that China will build off of the momentum from its engagement with the region. Xi is set to host the 25^th Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin.