Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon on Thursday in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.

Xi said China-Tajikistan relations have developed by leaps and bounds since the establishment of diplomatic ties 30 years ago.

China firmly supports Tajikistan in safeguarding national independence, sovereignty and security, Xi said, stressing that China will always be Tajikistan's reliable neighbor, friend and partner. He called on the two sides to continue to firmly support each other and push for more substantive results in bilateral relations.

The Chinese president emphasized that China is willing to strengthen practical cooperation with Tajikistan, expand import of quality agricultural products, raise the scale and level of bilateral trade and advance cooperation in the areas of infrastructure, water conservancy and transportation.

He also said that China is willing to explore cooperation in green technology, digital economy and artificial intelligence, besides helping Tajikistan improve its transit transport capacity.

China is willing to work with Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries to strengthen cooperation through the "China and the five Central Asian countries" meeting mechanism, deepen counterterrorism cooperation and jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the region, Xi said.

For his part, Rahmon said that Sino-Tajik ties have made great progress over the past 30 years. Tajikistan firmly abides by the one-China principle, maintains that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory and will continue to firmly support China's position on issues of core interests.

Tajikistan is willing to keep close high-level exchanges with China, learn from China's development experience and strengthen practical cooperation in economy and trade, agriculture, transportation, production capacity and green economy to lift bilateral ties to a new level, the Tajik president said.

Rahmon expressed willingness to strengthen coordination and cooperation with China within the frameworks of the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, and China and the five Central Asian countries mechanism. He also called for deepening security cooperation and jointly safeguarding regional security and stability.

The two sides signed cooperation documents on digital economy, green development and transportation, and exchanged views on the situation in Afghanistan.