Introduction
Held on June 16-18, 2025 in Astana, Kazakhstan, the China-Central Asia Summit 2025 represents a major milestone for China and Central Asian Republics (CARs). The Summit was a sequel to the inaugural China-Central Asia Summit held in 2023 in Xi’an, China. Since the commencement of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Beijing has steadily consolidated its diplomatic efforts aimed at Central Asian regional integration by developing the economy, energy, and infrastructure. The Summit forms an integral part of China’s broader Eurasian integration strategy that focuses on mobilizing resources, building deeper economic connectivity, and fostering political links with Central Asia, a region hailed as the ‘heartland of the world’.[1]
President Xi Jinping and the Premiers of the five Central Asian Republics (CARS) inked the landmark Treaty on ‘Eternal Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation’, upgrading ties to new heights and fortifying the China-Central Asia mechanism as a platform for harnessing mutual trust and regional stability. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated that the high-level engagement “helped renew traditional friendship and draw a blueprint for development” with Central Asia as a region.[2] The Summit, in the words of Djoomart Otorbaev, former premier of Kyrgyzstan, “was a very big success and the pact is considered to be a kind of constitution, guiding our future cooperation.”[3] The Summit culminated with renewed commitment for expanding regional connectivity through the BRI and building a community of shared future.
