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

by Eric Olander
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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