Chinese President Xi Jinping will chair the China-Central Asia Summit, scheduled for May 18 and 19 in Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Monday.

At China's invitation, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, President Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan and President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan will attend the summit.

Since the establishment of their diplomatic relations three decades ago, China and the five Central Asian countries have developed strategic partnerships and established a new path of good neighborliness, friendship and win-win cooperation, thereby setting up a paradigm for a new type of international relations.

According to Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, China's trade with the five Central Asian countries reached a historic high of $70.2 billion in 2022, some 100 times the volume 30 years ago.

Thus, in 2022, China's imports of agricultural, energy and mineral products from these countries jumped to over 50 percent while its exports of mechanical and electronic products increased by 42 percent.

By the end of last year, China's direct investment stock in the five Central Asian countries reached nearly $15 billion, with a number of cooperation projects launched in fields such as oil and gas exploration, processing and manufacturing, connectivity and digital technologies.

In the first two months of this year, trade between China and the five Central Asian countries surged 22 percent year on year.

(Cover: A panoramic view of Xi'an City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, April 9, 2023. /CFP)