A handout photo made available by Kazakhstan's President press-service shows Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) speaking during a joint press-conference with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (R) during their meeting in Kazakh President residence 'Akorda' in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, 14 September 2022. [Handout photo/EPA/EFE]
The President of China, Xi Jinping, arrived for a state visit to the capital of Kazakhstan on Wednesday (14 September), coinciding with an official visit of Pope Francis and a Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. EURACTIV reports from Nur-Sultan.
Traffic in the Kazakh capital, still named Nur-Sultan, but expected to return to its previous name of Astana, was intense on Wednesday. The view of alternating flags of China and the Vatican decorating the main boulevards looked out of place, given that relations between China and the Vatican are very difficult.
The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, spent the morning with Pope Francis at the Independence Palace, with delegates from more than 100 countries representing Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other faiths. In the afternoon, he met at the airport Xi Jinping, for whom this was his first visit abroad since the pandemic, and the two held talks at the presidential palace.
Jinping and Tokayev praised the bilateral relations, and Tokayev, who speaks Chinese, said that the visit sends the message of a “high level of mutual trust and cooperation.”
“I sincerely thank you for your support for Kazakhstan’s economic development and our international initiatives,” Tokayev told Xi.
China is one of Kazakhstan’s biggest trade partners, accounting for 22.6% of the country’s foreign trade, according to data from the Kazakh State Revenue Committee.
The trade turnover reached $13.5 billion in seven months of 2022, 38.3% more than in the same period of 2021. This was driven mainly by a 52% increase in Kazakh exports to China, primarily exports of mineral products, fuel, and energy products.
“No matter how the international situation changes, we will continue to strongly support Kazakhstan in defending its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, firmly support the reforms you are carrying out to ensure stability and development and oppose the interference of any forces in the internal affairs of your country,” Jinping told Tokayev, as quoted by the Astana Times.
Kazakhs with whom EURACTIV spoke said they were proud that their country got so much international attention, which they thought was deserved due to a traditional peace-loving and multi-vector policy.
Diplomats added that the visit of Xi Jinping was obviously on short notice. They sought clues in an article by the Chinese president, published in the “Kazakhstan Pravda”, in which Beijing was generous with poetic hyperboles and compliments for Kazakhstan.
‘Eternal all-round strategic partnership’
“From good-neighbourliness and friendship to a strategic partnership, up to the eternal all-round strategic partnership, our bilateral relations are making a historic breakthrough and acquiring qualitatively new, unique connotations – these are interstate relations of a new type”, Xi wrote.
The Chinese president mentioned the “One Belt – One Road Initiative”, which was announced for the first time by himself during an official visit to Kazakhstan in 2013.
Due to its geographic position, Kazakhstan has been described as the “buckle” of the “Belt-and-road”.
According to diplomats, another of Xi’s objectives is to secure the imports of uranium from Kazakhstan, needed for China’s push to build many new nuclear power centrals.
Central Corridor
Diplomats told EURACTIV that this initiative needed re-calibration in the context of the war in Ukraine, with the so-called “Central Corridor” becoming the only viable route for Chinese exports by rail to the rest of Eurasia.
This means that the routes through Russia are no longer viable, nor are those across Iran subject to international sanctions. Consequently, the only corridor allowing for multi-billion savings in time and money for the transit of goods goes from Kazakhstan’s port of Aktau, across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and then Georgia.
From Georgia, the goods can continue their way across the Black Sea to Bulgaria or Romania, Kazakhstan’sothe, and across land via Turkey.
Kazakhstan key ‘Middle Corridor’ linking China to EU
Kazakhstan has a vital role to play in the Middle Corridor, or Trans-Caspian International Transport Route EU officials said at a public event in Brussels on Wednesday (15 June).
One reason for the huge international concern about the current flare-up of tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia is precisely in the context of the plans to make the Central corridor come true, diplomats explained.
Jinping’s visit to Kazakhstan occurs as Russia suffers setbacks on the Ukraine battlefield. The Chinese leader and Tokayev will meet Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on Thursday at the leaders’ summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
China is under pressure from the US, who is reportedly considering options for a sanctions package to deter it from invading Taiwan. In this context, diplomats said China might need to re-assess its partnerships, scaling down Russia’s and possibly boosting those with Kazakhstan.
US considers China sanctions to deter Taiwan action while Taipei presses EU
The United States is considering options for a sanctions package against China to deter it from invading Taiwan, with the European Union coming under diplomatic pressure from Taipei to do the same, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
No meeting between Xi and Francis
Despite being in the same city, Xi and Pope Francis did not meet.
Francis appeared to criticise Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who backs the invasion of Ukraine and has snubbed the conference of the religious leaders.
Speaking at a huge round table in the Independence Palace, a modern structure in the futuristic capital of Kazakhstan, “God is peace. He guides us always in the way of peace, never that of war,” Francis said.
The Russian Orthodox Church sent a delegation headed by its number two, Metropolitan Anthony, who later briefly met the pope.
Some of the messages from religious leaders sounded very hostile to liberal politics prevailing in the West, particularly against same-sex marriage.
Surreal mass
Francis celebrated a mass on Wednesday afternoon for the country’s Catholics, which constitute roughly one per cent of the population, with many pilgrims travelling from abroad, mostly from other Central Asian countries.
The mass, attended by almost 10,000 people, appeared surreal, as although celebrated under the auspices of the Vatican, most of it was in Russian. At one point, even Pope Francis spoke Russian, saying “Исповедую“ (“I confess”).
At the end of the ceremony, Francis made a political statement about the war in Ukraine and expressed concern over the clash between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“The only solution is peace. And the only road to it is dialogue”, said Francis.
