China’s Xi Invites Ex-Soviet Republics Of Central Asia For Summit

China’s Xi Jinping invited the leaders of Central Asian ex-Soviet republics to a joint summit in China this week to boost Beijing’s influence in Russia’s backyard.

The Chinese president extended the invitation to the “first China-Central Asia summit,” scheduled for May, in telegrams sent to the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan on Monday and Tuesday and made public by the recipients.

Reclusive Turkmenistan, China’s top gas supplier, has yet to confirm whether it has been invited to the meeting.

Central Asia’s authoritarian republics were part of the Soviet Union and have been dominated by Moscow since the mid-nineteenth century.

However, Russia’s influence is being questioned, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing is courting Moscow’s traditional allies in the region, both politically and economically, with projects like the massive road, rail, and port infrastructure project envisioned as a modern iteration of the Silk Road through Central Asia and beyond.

Turkey and Western powers also attempt to increase their clout in the strategically located mineral-rich region.

Along with Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Chief European Union Diplomat Charles Michel, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken have visited Central Asia in recent months.

Xi emphasized the strengthening ties between China and the Central Asian regimes in four invitations sent out on Monday and Tuesday to mark Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebrated in the region.

According to the official Tajik news agency Khovar, Xi is “eager to discuss a grand plan to develop relations” between his country and the region.

However, Beijing’s growing clout is not universally welcomed.

Sections of the population in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, which share borders with China with Tajikistan, have expressed concern and opposition. All of them have Muslim majorities.

These concerns are focused on China’s land acquisition, government debt owed to Beijing, and the latter’s brutal treatment of its Muslim Uyghur minority, which is also present in Central Asia.