The Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation continues in Beijing. Delegations from 187 countries take part in it. Heads and prime ministers of 37 states arrived in the capital of China. As for the countries of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan’s President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, the head of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon and the leader of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev arrived in Beijing.
Plenary sessions will take place within the forum today. Sooronbai Jeenbekov will speak in «1 + 3» format. Before start of the work, the heads of state have breakfast in an informal setting on the shore of Yanqi lake, 80 kilometers from Beijing. All presidents are invited to the breakfast. Ex-head of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev will also participate in it. He arrived in Beijing as an honored guest. The host party accommodated the ex-president at a hotel. Sooronbai Jeenbekov, Vladimir Putin, Emomali Rakhmon, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and leaders of other countries were accommodated at Diaoyutai state residence.
An expert Sergey Ponomarev summed up preliminary results of the second Belt and Road Forum. He told 24.kg news agency that joining the integration concept proposed in 2013 by Xi Jinping was promising for Kyrgyzstan, both from an economic and political point of view.
Some experts believe that the neighbor of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, is trying to win over all infrastructure projects under this initiative.
«China is prudent, realizing that one corridor through Kazakhstan to Russia and further to Eastern and Western Europe implies certain risks. This is a kind of bondage, which will require its own piece of cake in years. Therefore, China is considering the second corridor,» Sergey Ponomarev said.
It is very profitable for Kyrgyzstan to work in the same transport bundle with ambitious and rapidly economically developing China. This opens up not only new economic, but also political ways.
Sergey Ponomarev
He also commented on the speech of Nursultan Nazarbayev, who said that the European Union, the SCO and EEU should think about global integration, merging into a single economic space. The expert believes that this statement is more political than economical, but nevertheless, such a union is real in the long term, and therefore Kyrgyzstan will be involved in the global economic process, especially since trade routes will run through it.
As for the railway connecting China with Europe and running through the countries of Central Asia, this issue was on the agenda yesterday and is the cornerstone of the partners in One Belt, One Road concept. Sergey Ponomarev called the condition under which Kyrgyzstan would benefit from the implementation of this project.
«If we look at the exit to Iran, this direction is not very interesting, but the segment that could connect us with Russia and through it with Europe is attractive. Another thing is that the issue of financing is not clear. This discussion has been delayed, and it seems to me that some politicians are slowing down the decision making,» he stressed.
Recall, Xi Jinping proposed the integration concept One Belt, One Road during his visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in the fall of 2013. Kyrgyzstan, as a member of EEU, supported this initiative. One of the key issues for the Kyrgyz Republic is the construction of a railway through the territory of the country. It will be one of the stretches that will run from China to Europe.
