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The Star
28-04-2025
- Business
- The Star
China, Central Asia vow to uphold multilateralism
ALMATY: China and all five of its Central Asian neighbors have reached fresh consensus and made productive action plans for shoring up free trade, building up connectivity and upholding multilateralism, as their senior diplomats met on Saturday (April 26) in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for the sixth China-Central Asia Foreign Ministers' Meeting. The senior diplomats engaged in in-depth discussions on advancing China-Central Asia cooperation in various aspects. The meeting was expected to pave the way for the second China-Central Asia Summit, which will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, in June. The gathering sent a strong message of renewed unity among the six nations to jointly reject unilateralism and protectionism amid lingering tariff wars and trade wars initiated by Washington, officials said. The China-Central Asia mechanism was launched in 2020, and the first China-Central Asia Summit was held in 2023 in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. All members of the mechanism exchanged views on documents to be signed at the upcoming summit, and they vowed further coordination to make the summit a great success, according to a joint statement about the Saturday meeting released by China's Foreign Ministry. While addressing the meeting, Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Murat Nurtleu said, "The upcoming meeting of leaders will open a new milestone of eternal friendship and prosperity." The six countries are "creating all conditions" for the China-Central Asia mechanism to "become a flagship among the mechanisms of (Central Asia Plus)", the newspaper Astana Times quoted Nurtleu as saying. China is Central Asia's top trading partner and a major source of investment. At the meeting, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China will unswervingly advance high-level opening-up and "seek common development with neighboring countries". He noted that the United States has imposed arbitrary tariffs on more than 180 countries, infringing upon their legitimate rights and interests. China has stepped forward and taken necessary countermeasures "not only to defend its own legitimate rights and interests, but also to safeguard international rules and order as well as international fairness and justice", Wang said. Regarding trade and production, the meeting's joint statement said that "the (attending) parties reaffirm their support for multilateralism and the rules of international trade, do not approve of the practice of unilateral protectionism, and will strengthen coordination and form a united position in this regard in order to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests". The six nations welcomed the holding of import and export exhibitions as well as the rolling out of business and investment activities among them. In addition, they underlined the necessity to "strengthen investment cooperation within the framework of the mechanism, expand industrial cooperation, ensure the stability of production and supply chains, and enhance efficiency", the joint statement said. According to China's General Administration of Customs, China's total trade with the five Central Asian countries reached US$77.132 billion in the first ten months of last year. In the first quarter of this year, China's total trade with the five countries increased 6.9 per cent year-on-year, Xinhua News Agency reported on April 18. Han Chunlin, China's ambassador to Kazakhstan, noted recently that China has signed cooperation documents with all five Central Asian countries on co-building the Belt and Road, "setting a benchmark in the global arena". Regarding the joint building of a community with a shared future, Han wrote in an article this month in People's Daily that "China and Central Asian countries respect one another's path of development of independent choice, firmly support one another in core interests related to national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolutely oppose interference from outside". On behalf of Beijing, Foreign Minister Wang put forward a five-point proposal at the meeting on Saturday for deepening China-Central Asia cooperation. It calls for being firm in upholding good faith and fostering harmony; sticking to mutually beneficial cooperation; further advancing institutional development; adhering to fairness and justice; and being firm in friendship for generations. "All attending parties agreed that China serves as a stabilizing force in a turbulent world and has demonstrated leadership in supporting multilateralism," China's Foreign Ministry said in a news release on Saturday. The five Central Asian countries said they are ready to strengthen the synergy between their national development strategies and the Belt and Road Initiative. The five nations are also ready to further jointly combat the "three evil forces" of terrorism, extremism and separatism, and transnational crime in order to maintain regional peace and stability, according to the nations' diplomats. - China Daily/ANN
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dwindling body of water makes stunning comeback: 'The result of two years of systematic work'
A conservation project to revitalize the North Aral Sea in Kazakhstan has delivered encouraging returns, with the lake now nearly twice the size it was in 2008. According to the Astana Times, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation announced in January that its efforts, in coordination with the World Bank, increased the body of water's volume by 42%. As a result, the North Aral Sea now contains 27 billion cubic meters of water, and its salinity has dropped by a factor of four. Additionally, the plan has helped local fisheries up their annual catch total to 8,000 tons, which pales in comparison to peak levels but is still a positive development. "These figures are the result of two years of systematic work. We have reached mutual understanding with neighboring countries on the protection and equitable sharing of water resources in transboundary rivers," Nurzhan Nurzhigitov, the department's minister, said during a public meeting in the Aral district of the Kyzylorda Region. Improved water management of the Syr Darya River allowed authorities to fill the North Aral Sea with 2.6 billion cubic meters of water last year. Deutsche Welle also noted that conservationists are planting native black saxaul trees in the area to combat desertification and improve climate resilience. The Aral Sea was once the fourth-largest lake in the world at around 68,000 square kilometers, per the U.S. Geological Services. However, it split into two and is now just a 10th of the size it was in 1960 after the Soviet government diverted the rivers that feed into the sea to irrigate the arid region surrounding it. This led to what the U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Kazakhstan called "one of the worst ecological catastrophes in human history." The Aral Sea's heightened salinity rendered the water undrinkable and killed off several commercial fish species, impacting the lake's biodiversity and economic productivity. Dust from the exposed seabed has also caused numerous health issues, such as respiratory illness and cancer. That's what makes continued commitments to improve the North Aral Sea and others like it, including Michigan's Great Lakes and Bolivia's Lake Uru Uru, all the more crucial. Many lakes and other aquatic habitats are disappearing because of Earth's overheating and anthropogenic activities. "We will continue negotiating and making every effort to maintain a stable level of important reservoirs. The Aral Sea restoration project aims, first of all, to improve the environmental situation in the region, develop fisheries and tourism, and improve the well-being of the population," Nurzhigitov added. How often do you worry about the quality of your drinking water? Never Sometimes Often Always Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
