Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech titled "Championing the China-Central Asia Spirit For High-Quality Cooperation in the Region" at the second China-Central Asia Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on June 17, 2025.
In his speech, Xi systematically expounded on鈥攆or the first time鈥攖he China-Central Asia Spirit of "mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual benefit, and mutual assistance for the joint pursuit of modernization through high-quality development."
The articulation of the China鈥揅entral Asia Spirit represents both a theoretical refinement of the historical logic underpinning China鈥揅entral Asia relations and the establishment of a set of shared values and guiding principles for the future development of the bilateral ties.
With its profound theoretical connotations and distinctive contemporary relevance, Xi’s interpretation of the China鈥揅entral Asia Spirit has drawn widespread attention and positive response in the region and beyond, injecting strong cohesion and ideological affinity into the effort to build an even closer China鈥揅entral Asia community with a shared future.
China鈥揅entral Asia Spirit represents crystallization of long-term development of China鈥揅entral Asia relations
As the essence of China鈥揅entral Asia relations, the China鈥揅entral Asia Spirit has deep historical roots and distinctive contemporary features.
"Our cooperation is rooted in more than 2,000 years of friendly exchanges, cemented by solidarity and mutual trust cultivated through more than three decades of diplomatic ties, and taken forward via openness and win-win cooperation of the new era," Xi said in his speech, precisely capturing the nature of China鈥揅entral Asia relations.
For millennia, China and Central Asia have shared close ties, with the ancient Silk Road standing as a symbol of mutual enrichment and shared prosperity.
Many ancient cities in Central Asia, such as Samarkand, Bukhara, and Merv, were once vibrant hubs where Eastern and Western civilizations met.
Through these routes, Chinese silk and porcelain reached the rest of the world, while Central Asian grapes, walnuts, music, and dance enriched Chinese culture.
For centuries, the peoples of China and Central Asia have worked together to promote the prosperity of the Silk Road, making outstanding contributions to global civilizational exchange, mutual learning, and the advancement of humanity. Friendly cooperation has remained the prevailing theme throughout this shared history.
Today, China and the five Central Asian countries have established comprehensive strategic partnerships, reached strategic consensus on building both a regional and global community with a shared future, and signed agreements on cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The China鈥揅entral Asia mechanism, featuring fast growth, pragmatic cooperation, and rich fruits, has earned strong recognition across the region and stands as a model for regional cooperation.
"The key to the successful cooperation between China and the five Central Asian countries over the past three decades lies in our abiding commitment to mutual respect, good-neighborly friendship, solidarity in trying times, and mutual benefit," Xi noted during the virtual summit celebrating the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the five Central Asian countries in January 2022.
He called these four principles "a valuable experience and shared asset we have gained from cooperation," "a political guarantee for the steady and sustained growth of China’s relations with Central Asian countries," and "a source of inspiration for us to further advance friendly exchanges," and proposed jointly building "an even closer China鈥揅entral Asia community with a shared future."
The inaugural China鈥揅entral Asia Summit held in Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, in May 2023, marked a new chapter in bilateral cooperation between China and Central Asian countries and their joint commitment to carrying forward centuries of friendship and marching toward a shared future.
In his speech at the summit, Xi pointed out that the world needs a stable, prosperous, harmonious, and interconnected Central Asia, pledging that China will "strengthen theoretical and practical exchanges with Central Asian countries on modernization, synergize our development strategies, create more opportunities for cooperation, and jointly advance the modernization process of our six countries."
At the second China鈥揅entral Asia Summit held this year, Xi encapsulated the core connotations of the China鈥揅entral Asia Spirit in a concise and insightful way: practice mutual respect and treat each other as equals, seek to deepen mutual trust and enhance mutual support, pursue mutual benefit and win-win cooperation and strive for common development, help each other in times of need and stand together through thick and thin.
This spirit embodies the essence of centuries of exchange and the reality of modern cooperation between China and Central Asian countries, and profoundly reflects a shared aspiration for peaceful development and win-win cooperation.
It represents the crystallization of the centuries-old friendship and cooperation between China and Central Asian countries as well as the core values underpinning the friendly relations.
China鈥揅entral Asia Spirit offers a set of guiding values for global governance reform
In a world that faces numerous global challenges, the call for reform in global governance is becoming an irresistible trend.
The China鈥揅entral Asia Spirit offers valuable guidance on regional governance regarding such aspects as development and security.
Its core values, including defending international fairness and justice, promoting mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, and advocating openness and inclusiveness, stand out amid the rampant acts of unilateralism, protectionism, and hegemonism in today’s world.
As such, the spirit represents a timely and innovative normative contribution to the evolving landscape of international relations, helping elevate China鈥揅entral Asia ties from a model of regional cooperation to a benchmark for global governance and offering fresh perspectives and new impetus for addressing challenges to global governance.
Situated at the crossroads of Eurasia, Central Asia is both geopolitically pivotal and vulnerable. Its landlocked position presents trade challenges but also offers unique potential as a continental hub linking East, West, North, and South.
At the same time, the region faces security threats from terrorism, separatism, and extremism. This complex landscape poses serious challenges to all regional countries, including China. Therefore, regional stability is a shared strategic interest among China and Central Asian countries.
Rejecting the zero-sum game of traditional geopolitics, the China鈥揅entral Asia Spirit stresses deepening mutual trust and enhancing mutual support, advocates for working together to address various risks and challenges, and upholds regional security and stability.
It not only charts a course for security governance in China and Central Asia, but injects positive energy into the efforts to address global security challenges and promote world peace and development.
China has long upheld the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, the international system with the United Nations at its core, as well as the international order underpinned by international law.
The relationship between China and the Central Asian countries serves as a model of these principles in action.
Central Asia, as a critical neighbor and external support for China’s national development, has long occupied a central place in China’s diplomacy with neighboring countries.
At the recent China鈥揅entral Asia Summit, the heads of state of China and the five Central Asian countries signed a treaty on eternal good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation, enshrining the principle of everlasting friendship in the form of law.
This represents a milestone in the history of China鈥揅entral Asia relations and a significant innovation in China’s neighborhood diplomacy.
The cooperation between China and Central Asia has become a shining example of how good neighbors wish each other well.
The China鈥揅entral Asia spirit champions mutual trust and mutual support. Amid a volatile and uncertain international landscape, China and the Central Asian countries have upheld the principle of harmonious coexistence, setting a new paradigm for how major countries engage with their neighbors and how adjacent nations can jointly build a community with a shared future.
China鈥揅entral Asia Spirit carries beautiful vision of shared development and prosperity
The core values of mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual benefit, and mutual assistance highlighted by the China-Central Asia Spirit, as well as the fields and principles of cooperation listed in the outcome documents of the recent China鈥揅entral Asia Summit, reflect a strong collective will to deepen cooperation and achieve shared regional development and prosperity.
Despite global upheaval, development remains the top priority and common interest of all nations.
China is advancing the building of a great nation and the realization of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization, while the five Central Asian countries are pushing ahead with their respective national strategies鈥攆rom Kazakhstan’s "Bright Road" new economic policy to Uzbekistan’s development strategy of "New Uzbekistan" for 2022-2026.
These national strategies share notable commonalities: their primary concern is to safeguard a secure and stable environment for development; their primary goal is to achieve sustainable economic and social progress and improve people’s well-being amid a complex global landscape; their key pathway lies in leveraging the momentum of technological revolution to drive economic transformation and upgrading; and their shared vision is to deepen regional economic coordination and realize national development goals through greater openness and integration.
The China鈥揅entral Asia spirit provides strong normative guidance and practical direction for promoting shared development and prosperity for China and the Central Asian countries.
"No matter how the international situation changes, China will remain unwavering in opening up to the outside world, and embrace higher-quality cooperation with Central Asian countries to deepen the integration of interests and achieve common development," Xi said at the second China鈥揅entral Asia Summit.
The modernization China is pursuing is not for China alone. Instead, the country promotes shared progress and win-win results.
By sharing development experience with other developing nations, China has shown its strong sense of responsibility as a major country and its resolve to implement the Global Development Initiative.
The outcome documents of the second China鈥揅entral Asia Summit, especially the Astana Declaration of the China-Central Asia Summit, have incorporated the priority areas for development of great concern to the five Central Asian countries into the key cooperation agenda. This vividly illustrates a cooperation paradigm based on equal consultation and strategic alignment between China and the five Central Asian countries.
Under the guidance of the China鈥揅entral Asia Spirit, the all-round cooperation between China and the five Central Asian countries is bound to accelerate modernization in all the six countries, deepen and expand China’s integration with the world, and elevate Central Asia’s role as a strategic hub on the Eurasian continent.
More importantly, it will enhance mutual understanding and friendship among the peoples of various countries, and realize the regional vision of shared development and lasting peace.
(This article is an abridged and translated version of an article written by Li Yongquan, the head of the Institute for Euro-Asian Social Development under the Development Research Center of the State Council, China, focusing on the main points while preserving the original views.)
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0702/c90000-20335110.html