OREANDA-NEWS. September 16, 2013. As it was reported earlier, at the invitation of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping arrived in our country on September 8 with state visit.

Major events of the visit were scheduled for September 9. The official ceremony of welcoming the PRC President took place at the Kuksaroy residence. The guard of honor lined up in mark of respect to the high-ranking guest. Islam Karimov and Xi Jinping rose to the podium to pay tribute to state anthems of Uzbekistan and China. Then the heads of our two states walked past the guard of honor.

During the meeting in a contracted format, Islam Karimov and Xi Jinping exchanged views across a wide range of issues in regard to boosting the cooperation between Uzbekistan and China, along with regional and international affairs of shared interest.

President Karimov noted that the first state visit by the President of the People’s Republic of China is considered in Uzbekistan as a historic event in the bilateral relations and as a manifestation of strengthening fundamental foundations of cooperation between our two nations.
Xi Jinping highly appraised the interaction between the two countries and stressed the importance of such meetings that serve the vital interests of the Chinese and Uzbek peoples as well as the common development.

The interrelations between our two peoples date back to the depth of ages. Cultural and trade bonds between the ancient Maverannahr and the Celestial Empire were instrumental in the worldwide spread of tea, cotton, silk, paper and other goods.

Currently, the bilateral ties have been advancing across all the spheres in the spirit of the Agreement on Partnership Relations of Friendship and Cooperation as well as the Joint Declaration on the Establishment of Strategic Partnership. The cooperation covers the entire complex of relations and is mutually advantageous. It is built on the personal contacts between heads of state characterized with mutual confidence and respect. Exchanges of visits and summit meetings have been rather regular.

Notably, the Uzbek President’s official visit to China in June 2012 helped raise the bilateral relations to a qualitatively new level. The crucial outcome of that visit was the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Establishment of Strategic Partnership. Overall, 45 trade-economic, investment and financial agreements and contracts worth 5.3 billion US dollars were inked during that visit.

Our two countries provide one another with political support at the international arena in promoting vitally important interests of the two nations by enhancing cooperation within the frameworks of the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other international institutions.

Also, the two sides enthusiastically interact in issues pertinent to bolstering regional security. As it has been pointed out, the approaches of Uzbekistan and China to addressing many regional and international issues are similar or close. Thus, our two nations believe there is no military solution to the crisis in Afghanistan, and the only proper path is a political way out, a path of negotiations under the UN auspices and a consensus among conflicting parties.

Islam Karimov said that Uzbekistan highly appreciates the dynamically advancing cooperation with China that is built on reciprocal confidence, respect and interest. Uzbekistan advocates the development of relations with China in all areas and is especially interested in the further expansion of interaction in energy, transport, trade, telecommunications and other spheres.

Xi Jinping stressed that China regards Uzbekistan as a close neighbor, a time-tested friend and strategic partner. For the 21 years of diplomatic relations, the ties between the two countries have been characterized with a steady dynamics of development. Remarkable outcomes of cooperation have been reached across a diversity of areas, and a range of major joint investment projects have been materialized. The high-ranking guest expressed the willingness of the country he leads to keep with the fruitful cooperation with Uzbekistan in order to implement the agreements of strategic nature reached during meetings at the highest level.

Inter-parliamentary contacts have been enhancing. In 2011, the Senate of Uzbekistan’s Oliy Majlis and the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Congress signed a memorandum on cooperation.

Exchange of visits by governmental delegations has been expanding, as well. As part of interaction between the foreign affairs ministries of our two nations, 10 rounds of political consultations have been held in the 2004-2013 period.

In October 2011, the Sino-Uzbek Intergovernmental Committee for Cooperation was established in Beijing, which has organized sessions of six sub-committees on trade-economic and investment cooperation, cooperation in security issues, cultural and humanitarian cooperation, energy, transport, scientific and technical cooperation.

Active contacts have facilitated the consolidation of mutual support on pressing issues, including within the frameworks of the United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Notably, Beijing reaffirmed its stance on the unacceptability of its participation in the materialization of hydropower projects in Central Asia, which can upset the environmental balance, and advocates the principles of rational use of the trans-border rivers’ water flow in the region. Uzbekistan unequivocally supports the People’s Republic on issues related to territorial integrity and combating the three forces of evil, that is, terrorism, extremism and separatism.

The leaders of Uzbekistan and China continued their talks with the participation of official delegations in the extended format.

The focus of negotiations was on the priority targeted tasks of our strategic partnership, along with prospects of bolstering the multifaceted cooperation between our two countries in the trade and economic, investment and financial, cultural and humanitarian areas.

Uzbekistan attaches priority significance to the further consolidation of strategic partnership with the PRC, to the enhancement of multilayered cooperation between the two sides on the principles of mutual advantage, interest and equality.

The steadfast trend of growth in the volumes of mutual trade deserves a positive appraisal. Thus, for the last five years, the trade turnover has increased almost fourfold, namely, from 904 million US dollars in 2007 to 3.4 billion dollars in 2012. This indicator made up 2.3 billion dollars in the first half of this year, suggesting a 59 percent growth compared to the same period of the previous year.

Investment partnership is being implemented within the frameworks of the Program of Cooperation between the governments of Uzbekistan and China in non-raw materials and high-technology spheres signed in 2010.

Today, the two sides have been actively building up interaction in order to materialize a diversity of projects, primarily in the hi-tech area.

455 enterprises with the involvement of Chinese capital, including 70 enterprises with a 100 percent Chinese investments, have been active in our country. 71 companies of the People’s Republic have representative offices in Uzbekistan.

Starting from the year 2002, a total of 83 investment schemes worth 6.75 billion US dollars are being realized with the participation of Chinese investments and loans, including 52 projects with direct investments totaling 5.75 billion dollars, as well as 31 projects with soft loans totaling 992.4 million dollars.

Especially noteworthy is that during the June 2012 visit by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the PRC, a package of documents for a total of more than 5.3 billion dollars was signed that envisage the realization of more than 30 investment schemes.

During the current visit of the PRC President to Uzbekistan, 31 documents have been penned to implement projects for a total of 15 billion dollars.

Uzbekistan has supported the initiative proposed in 2011 by the Chinese leadership to establish the Uzbek-Chinese Industrial Park of High Technologies with the engagement of Chinese companies. In March this year, the park was founded as the Jizzakh Special Industrial Zone with a branch in Sirdarya region. Manufacturing of mobile phones, construction materials and other goods was launched at this SIZ last June.

In addition, 14 agreements have been reached within this visit on the creation of joint high-technology production capacities in the Park with drawing of direct investments from the PRC.

A range of Chinese companies have been energetic in projects in prospecting and processing of hydrocarbon deposits in the territory of Uzbekistan.

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has been involved not only in assessing and processing of promising hydrocarbon deposits, but also in the implementation of a project to deep reprocessing of natural gas at the Mubarek Gas Chemical Complex.

Both sides attach an important, strategic significance to the implementation of a scheme to construct and commission of the pipeline Uzbekistan-China that forms a stable corridor for long-term supplies of natural gas to the PRC. Inked during the current visit, the Protocol to the Agreement on the Principles of Construction and Commissioning of the Uzbekistan-China Pipeline envisions the construction of fourth line with a projected bandwidth of 30 billion cubic meters a year.

A practical strategic issue in the bilateral economic cooperation is the creation of the shortest railway route between our two nations that will provide for an optimal access of the PRC to the countries of Central Asia and further to South Asia. Uzbekistan support the realization of projects in the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railroad. Their logical extension is the scheme for a construction of Angren-Pap railway that will open up a possibility of direct corridor from the People’s Republic to South Asian nations. The construction of this road with the participation of Chinese partners was launched in June this year, when the Uzbekiston Temir Yullari State Stock Railway Company and the China Railway Tunnel Group signed a contract for the laying of a mountain pass tunnel at the railway line Angren-Pap totaling 455 million US dollars.

Cooperation has been enthusiastic also in the financial sector, in particular with the China Bank of Development and the PRC Eximbank. The aggregate loan portfolio of Chinese financial institutions has exceeded 4.5 billlion US dollars. They are assigned for the implementation of projects in healthcare, education, power industry, transport and telecommunications.

As part of deals reached during Islam Karimov’s visits to Beijing in 2011 and 2012, realization of 7 projects is being worked out within soft loan schemes of the Chinese government for a total of nearly 400.6 million US dollars in chemical industry, energy, agriculture and water resources as well as the development of transport infrastructure.

Also, an agreement has been inked during the current visit between the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan and the China Bank of Development for a joint funding of priority investment projects totaling 11.6 billion US dollars.

Relations in culture, science and technologies have been actively advancing between our two countries. The first monument to the representative of the Uzbek culture – the great miniature artist Kamoliddin Behzod was opened in China in 2003 in the city of Chanchun of the Jilin province within the frameworks of the 6th Forum of World Sculpture.

The Uzbekistan-China Friendship Society and the PRC-Central Asian Countries Friendship Society have been instrumental in advancing mutual contacts.

On 15 May 2013, the city of Shanghai hosted the opening ceremony of China’s first Center for the Study of Uzbekistan and the education exchanges at the base of the Public Diplomacy Research Institute of SCO at Shanghai University.

The enhancement of interaction in culture has been facilitated by the Program of Cooperation between the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China for 2011-2013. To this end, the Uzbek Culture Week was held in 2011 in the cities of Beijing and Xi’an, while the Chinese Culture Week was organized in 2012 in the cities of Tashkent and Samarkand. This year, an artistic exhibition “Works of Renowned Artists of Uzbekistan” has been held in a number of China’s major urban centers.

In 2012-2013 in general, in excess of 20 events dedicated to the culture, history and arts of Uzbekistan have been organized in the PRC. A range of reciprocal visits by delegations of culture and arts representatives have been organized, including for the participation in the Asrlar Sadosi Festival of Traditional Culture, the Art Week Style.uz, the Sharq Taronalari International Music Festival.

In the sphere of education, exchanges have been increasing between students and interns along government and agency levels, including as part of learning Chinese and Uzbek. More than 350 attendees are taught every year at the Confucius Institute in Tashkent. At the Central University of China Nationalities, the department of Uzbek language was included in June 2010 in the newly created Faculty of Russian Language and Languages of Central Asian Countries. Uzbek started to be taught as an optional course at the Beijing University of Foreign Languages from the academic year 2012-2013.

In addition, 120 Uzbek students and interns were granted Chinese government scholarship for the academic year 2012-2013 in accordance with a bilateral agreement and within the frameworks of the SCO. Approximately 70 students from Uzbekistan have been studying at Lanzhou University as part of the Confucius Institute scheme.

During the visit, an agreement has been penned on cooperation in the establishment of Confucius Institute in the city of Samarkand, which will serve the further enhancement of interaction in the educational sphere.

The two sides have been placing a special emphasis on the cooperation in tourism. A process has been underway since 2010 to grant the Republic of Uzbekistan a status of tourist destination country for group trips of Chinese citizens. The travel potential of our country was presented last April in Beijing at a major tour fair, China Outbound Travel & Tourism Market 2013, and at the international professional tour fair WTF 2013 in Shanghai last May.

Following the negotiations at the Kuksaroy residence, Islam Karimov and Xi Jinping signed the Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation and the Joint Declaration on the Further Development and Enhancement of Bilateral Relations of Strategic Partnership. Also penned was the intergovernmental agreement on technical-economic cooperation, along with a range of other documents designed to boost the interaction in economic, financial, education areas as well as oil and gas industry.

During the meeting with mass media representatives, the heads of two states noted that the talks and discussions between the two sides passed in an atmosphere of mutual understanding, constructivism and shared confidence. Their outcomes manifested the community and concurrency of positions on the majority of issues addressed. The leaders of our two nations stressed that the deals reached will serve the further development of the Uzbek-Chinese interaction and the enhancement of wellbeing of our two peoples.

As it was pointed out, the current visit has become an important event in the Sino-Uzbek relations. The two sides said they highly appreciated the dynamically advancing political, economic and humanitarian cooperation. The negotiations have underscored once again the closeness of views of the two countries across an entire spectrum of topical dimensions in contemporary development, in such areas as the necessity of interaction in combating the three forces of evil, in matters pertinent to the development of bilateral relations and the solution of numerous international issues. The parties to talks expressed willingness to continue with contacts at the highest level and boost the cooperation in such areas as economy, power industry, finances, investments, high technologies, and increase trade turnover and expand humanitarian ties.

Later the day, Islam Karimov and Xi Jinping traveled to the Mustaqillik Square. Here, the high-ranking guest laid wreath to the Monument of Independence and Humanism that symbolizes the freedom of Uzbekistan, the nobleness of aspirations of our people and the sincere belief in the bright future. The Chinese leader gave a high appraisal to the wide-ranging creative works undertaken under the leadership of Uzbekistan’s President at the Mustaqillik Square.

During the trip to the Senate of Oliy Majlis, the President of the PRC was introduced to the activities of the upper house of the Uzbek parliament. When he met with the Senate Chairman Ilgizar Sobirov, the high-ranking guest was informed in detail about the peculiarities in the functioning of the Senate.

On the same day, Xi Jinping traveled to one of Tashkent’s major tour attractions – the State Museum of the History of the Temurids, and reviewed the exhibits and unique items about the Sahibkiran and his posterity. The PRC leader left a note in the Book of Honorable Guests.