Nations celebrate 30th anniversary of ties, burgeoning momentum of trade

The firm political mutual support, deep economic cooperation, broad cultural and person-to-person exchanges and real benefits to both peoples have made Sino-Kazakh relations an example of relations between neighboring countries, said a Chinese senior diplomat.

Zhang Xiao, Chinese ambassador to Kazakhstan, said relations between China and this Central Asian country have reached a high level through the leadership of their presidents, which has established a firm political foundation while pointing to a bright future of development.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Kazakhstan. Since they were established, China-Kazakhstan relations have continuously advanced with the times and broken new ground, and they have always maintained the momentum of robust development, setting a good example of neighboring countries upholding good-neighborliness and pursuing win-win cooperation.

President Xi Jinping and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev have met, spoken by telephone and sent messages to each other many times, and they have maintained a fine working relationship as well as a personal friendship, Zhang said, adding that the two leaders increased their communication this year, injecting new energy into Sino-Kazakh relations.

The ambassador noted that Xi sent a message to Tokayev, saying that since the establishment of diplomatic ties, bilateral relations have always maintained a high level, with deepening political mutual trust, closer exchanges at all levels and fruitful outcomes in Belt and Road cooperation, and this has brought tangible benefits to the two peoples.

Kazakhstan is where the prospect of the Silk Road Economic Belt was first raised by President Xi during his state visit in 2013. It is now the first stop on the BRI's westward routes, said Zhang. Over the past nine years, China and Kazakhstan have made practical and fruitful achievements under the framework of the BRI.

"In 1992, when the two countries had just established diplomatic relations, the bilateral trade volume was $368 million. By the end of last year, Sino-Kazakh trading volume stood at $25.25 billion, increasing nearly 70 times in less than 30 years," Zhang said.

For further cooperation between the two countries, Zhang said that when Xi met with Tokayev, during the Kazakh leader's visit to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, he proposed that they should continue to focus on high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, give priority to production capacity, trade, agriculture and infrastructure construction, and continuously improve the level of interconnectivity.

At the same time, efforts should be made to foster new growth in fields such as green energy, modern medical care, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, digital finance, and jointly build the "Green Silk Road", "Health Silk Road" and "Digital Silk Road", Xi added.

"As the next step, both sides will seriously implement the agreement made by the two leaders, continue to strengthen strategic coordination and jointly push high-quality construction of the BRI," the envoy stressed.

Zhang said China and Kazakhstan also maintained close coordination and communication over international and regional issues under the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is a major platform for them to carry out strategic cooperation.

China and Kazakhstan will continue to jointly press ahead with their cooperation over politics, security, trading, agriculture, technology, tourism, education, media, women, and young people, Zhang said.