As reported earlier, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov has visited the People’s Republic of China to meet with President of the PRC Xi Jinping and take part in the fourth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.
The President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and President of the PRC Xi Jinping held a meeting in the residence of the Chinese leader in the city of Shanghai. During the conversation, the two sides attached a high appraisal to the current state of relations between our two nations and stressed the importance of such meetings in defining the prospects in the further development of cooperation.
The head of our state underscored the favorable dynamics in the promotion of interaction and expressed sincere gratitude to his Chinese colleague for a warm and cordial reception.
In his turn, the leader of the People’s Republic of China stated his firm commitment to the consolidation of truly strategic partnership between our two nations. Xi Jinping underlined his willingness to keep maintaining close personal dialogue with Uzbekistan’s leader, pushing for even greater achievements in bilateral relations.
The head of Chinese state said he stands for an even closer contact between the two countries in regional and international affairs. Having noted that Uzbekistan is an important nation in the region, Xi Jinping proposed to unite efforts with our country to cement trust among the nations of Asia, promote peace and stability and assist the socio-economic development in the region.
Islam Karimov and Xi Jinping discussed in detail a whole range of issues on the bilateral agenda, including the further consolidation of cooperation in the political, trade-economic, cultural-humanitarian and other spheres.
The two heads of state exchanged their visions on the pressing issues of regional and international nature.
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov took part and delivered a speech at the fourth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) held in the city of Shanghai.
CICA is an international forum dedicated to the consolidation of cooperation directed at ensuring peace, security and stability in Asia. The Conference currently unites 24 states. Nine countries and four international organizations are observers at CICA.
In his speech, the head of our state noted that there is scarcely any nation, society in the world today that would not express concern at the alarming, unbalanced political and economic developments in the contemporary world, which in its turn cannot but affect the construction of international security. Evaluating the situation currently unfolding in certain regions of the globe, one cannot but recognize the substantial aggravation of destabilizing factors, namely, the threats of use of force and burst of violence. Hardly mitigating have been the threats posed by international terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, interethnic and interreligious enmity.
Islam Karimov drew the attention of summit participants to an important aspect – the issue of trust. According to Uzbekistan’s leader, mutual movement of the conflicting sides toward each other in their aspiration to address the problems arising between them is imperative in the first place for those sides to come to reconciliation. Otherwise, practically all the negotiation processes turn into reciprocal complains and blames addressed to one another, and that this kind of process can last infinitely. This, in its turn, creates so-called frozen conflicts across various regions of the world, the outgrowth and internationalization of which are facilitated to a large extent by external forces pursuing their own far-reaching designs. Nonetheless, however the situation unfolds, the principal reason behind the emergence of a conflict lies in the loss of mutual trust between confronting sides, which ought to be restored and mandatorily cemented.
The head of our state expressed confidence that trust is that critical element and a compulsory condition, without which it is practically impossible to further the goals in any negotiating process dedicated to restoring peace and stability, in solving disputable issues and moving toward mutual understanding and consolidation of international cooperation. However, as expert assessment suggest, mutual confidence in the contemporary world and primarily in international relations is not only failing to grow, but it has been fading.
The essentially unfolding situation today has been revealing these issues among the most pressing ones that require resolution. The major reasons of such a trend taking shape are seen by many analysts in the headlong paces of the changing circumstances and scales of globalization in the modern world, the mounting geopolitical rivalry directed at the control over natural resources and communications, the deepening inequality in the distribution of incomes both within unstable countries and between advanced and developing nations.
According to Islam Karimov, today the ideology of radicalism, international terrorism, militant extremism and drug smuggling are no longer the problems of any one country or region, but they do not distinguish national borders, and first and foremost they are spread among the younger generation. The President of our country emphasized in this regard the absolute inaptness of approaches that link terrorism with the religion of Islam.
Many experts see the reasons of the mounting tension in the declining coordinating role of international supranational institutions of governance, and first of all the single approaches to the strict adherence to major norms of international law. Uzbekistan is convinced that the restoration and consolidation of confidence at the interstate and international level can without any doubt become the most critical foundation, the main barrier to the intensifying confrontational processes in the global space, a reliable instrument in the abolition of enmity among rival centers of power and in flaring up the tension and destabilizing the situation in restless regions of the world.
In this respect, as the head of our state noted, enormous attention and support deserve the proposals that sounded in the speech of the President of the PRC Xi Jinping to elaborate a new concept of security in Asia, prime goals sought from which should be the implementation of such underlying principles as mutual confidence, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation. The most crucial task is perceived to be the overcome of differences in ideology and approaches to the social system, refrain from interfering in internal affairs of other countries. The same support can go to the proposals to steadily boost and consolidate the regional economic cooperation, secure conditions conducive for commercial and investment activities, implement joint major infrastructure projects in the transport-communication and energy sectors, and create modern high-tech production lines and capacities. In the words of the President of our country, such novelties in approaches are rather demanding in the contemporary world.
The leader of Uzbekistan expounded also on his vision of the prospects in the development of the neighboring Afghanistan. Today one may assert with confidence that all the interested parties in addressing the Afghan crisis agree in one thing, namely, that the achievement of peace in Afghanistan does not have a military solution. Islam Karimov reminded in this regard that it was the very notion that Uzbekistan stated far back in April 2008 at the NATO summit in Bucharest.
The single reasonable path is that of the search for political resolution of the problem, the path of peaceful talks and achievement of consensus between various confronting sides, the formation of a government which would be comprised of representatives of major ethnic groups of the country. The head of Uzbekistan expressed hope that the second round of elections of the President of Afghanistan will be held at a proper level, which would allow for opening the road for the long-suffering people of Afghanistan to a peaceful life.
As a nation neighboring Afghanistan, Uzbekistan adheres to the principled policy of non-interference to its internal affairs, the arrangement of cooperation on a bilateral basis, provision of support to a government that will be elected by Afghans themselves.
Our country considers it absolutely counterproductive to place some preliminary conditions before the negotiating parties, conditions that may not only protract the negotiation process, but also return to the escalation of tension and continuation of confrontation, which is not admissible. As far as the withdrawal of ISAF peacekeeping forces from Afghanistan is concerned, the developments in that country has been such as that obviously will require delay in the ultimate time frames of the pulling out of troops that was initially scheduled for late 2014.
The head of our state pointed out that Uzbekistan clearly understands how intricate, intractable issues are faced by the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. Yet it is the very resolution of these challenges can justify all our efforts in improving the relations among states and removing the grounds causing tension and conflicts.
President Islam Karimov expressed conviction that the forthcoming presidency of the People’s Republic of China in the CICA will facilitate the resolution of thorny issues related to ensuring security and stability in the vast space of Asia. Let us remind in this regard that the presidency in the Conference has passed on to the PRC through to the year 2016.
On this occasion, the visit of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the People’s Republic of China came to an end. The meetings of the head of our state with the leader of the PRC will undoubtedly afford a new potent impetus to the trust-built relations between the two leaders and to the development of mutually advantageous fruitful cooperation between our two nations in the spirit of strategic partnership.