First ‘China - Central Asia’ ministerial meeting held by videoconference

Bishkek, July 16, 2020. /Kabar/. Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Minister Chingiz Aidarbekov took part in the first China-Central Asia (C+C5) ministerial meeting at the level of foreign ministers via videoconference.

According to the press service of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry, the event was organized at the initiative of the Chinese side and attended by foreign ministers of Central Asian countries and China.

During the online meeting, the sides discussed issues related to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and curbing its spread in the world, as well as issues of promoting economic recovery and productive activities in the conditions of the pandemic.

The parties agreed on the need to scale up mutual trade, improve the trade structure and deepen credit and investment cooperation. At the same time, China expressed its willingness to support Central Asian partners in increasing agricultural productivity, value added products and welcomed the expansion of supply of high-quality and organic products from Central Asian countries to the Chinese market.

The sides also discussed cooperation in combating terrorism, extremism and separatism, stressing the importance of peace process in Afghanistan.

At the same time, the Kyrgyz FM informed about the situation around the spread of coronavirus infection in Kyrgyzstan and fight against it.

In practical terms, Aidarbekov suggested activation of cooperation in the sphere of agriculture, digital economy, e-commerce, environment, and also raised the issue of importance of further deepening of financial and credit cooperation.

He particularly noted that in the conditions of pandemic and difficult epidemiological situation, practical implementation of the project on construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway becomes urgent.

China and Uzbekistan supported the importance of implementing this project. They also supported China's proposal to create an express corridor for convenient movement of business and technical personnel, "green corridor" for uninterrupted simplified cross-border cargo flow between the Central Asian countries and China.

As a result of the videoconference, the participants adopted a Joint Statement to that effect.