Chinese FM meets Russian, Kyrgyz, Uzbek counterparts on ties

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met separately with his Russian, Kyrgyz and Uzbek counterparts Thursday on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers' meeting.

Wang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pledged to constantly push forward the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between their countries.

The two sides agreed to implement the consensus reached by Chinese and Russian presidents during their meeting in May in the Chinese city of Shanghai.

The foreign ministers called on China and Russia to maintain close strategic communication and coordination and promote cooperation in such areas as politics, economy and trade, energy and culture.

The two countries should strengthen cooperation within the framework of the SCO to build the organization into a community of shared interests and destiny, they said.

Both being permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and Russia should keep close communication on the issue of Afghanistan, the Iranian and Korean Peninsula nuclear issues, and the Ukraine crisis, among other regional and international affairs, they added.

At a meeting with Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldaev, Wang said China-Kyrgyzstan relations reached an unprecedented height in May when Chinese President Xi Jinping and visiting Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev reached a series of consensus on developing the strategic partnership between their countries.

The two foreign ministers agreed that China and Kyrgyzstan should expand bilateral trade, strengthen and deepen cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, agriculture, and security, and jointly push forward the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

While meeting with his Uzbek counterpart, Abdulaziz Kamilov, Wang said the China-Uzbekistan strategic partnership has been developing rapidly, and the two countries have promoted political mutual trust, strategic coordination and practical cooperation in an all-round way.

China and Uzbekistan have become good friends with high-level strategic mutual trust, and bilateral relations enjoy vast prospect for development, Wang added.

The Chinese and Uzbek foreign ministers agreed to greatly expand practical cooperation between their countries, including in the construction of Line D of China-Central Asia gas pipelines.