Central Asian Leaders Arrive in Northwestern China For First-Ever Summit With Xi Jinping

Chinese Premier Li Qiang (R) receives Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 17, 2023. GREG BAKER / POOL / AFP

Final preparations are underway in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi’an for a high-profile two-day Central Asian summit that gets underway on Thursday hosted by President Xi Jinping and his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.

The gathering, known as the C+C5 Summit, will serve as an important milestone in China’s increasingly close ties with Central Asian countries as it’s the first-ever leaders summit since Beijing established diplomatic ties with these countries more than 30 years ago.

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