Eldor Aripov: Cooperation between Central Asia and China must advance to a new level
On 22 October 2026, Bishkek hosted the Sixth China – Central Asia Think Tank Forum under the theme “High-Quality Development and Joint Modernization”. The event brought together representatives of leading think tanks, government institutions and the expert community from China and the Central Asian countries to discuss prospects for regional cooperation and practical approaches to joint modernization.
Eldor Aripov, Director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ISRS), addressed the forum via video message. He outlined the main achievements and current priorities of cooperation between China and the Central Asian states, with particular emphasis on prospects for strengthening the partnership.
The ISRS Director highlighted the forum’s growing role in strengthening regional cooperation. Its inclusion in the lists of outcomes of two China – Central Asia summits, he noted, demonstrates that the countries’ leaders regard expert dialogue as an effective instrument of cooperation rather than a mere formality.
Mr. Aripov emphasized that the Astana Declaration and the Treaty on Eternal Good-Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation had laid a solid political foundation for the partnership, setting the course for cooperation for decades to come.
Turning to trade and economic relations, the ISRS Director noted that trade between China and the Central Asian countries exceeded $106 billion for the first time in 2025, up 12% year on year. China remains the leading trading partner of all five countries in the region.
Cooperation between Uzbekistan and China also continues to expand steadily. Over the past five years, bilateral trade has tripled to nearly $18 billion, while Chinese investment has increased fivefold to $17 billion.
At the same time, Mr. Aripov stressed that these achievements do not mean that all the objectives have been met. The composition of trade does not yet fully reflect the partners’ interests and potential.
Against this background, developing transport networks is particularly important, including the construction of the China – Kyrgyzstan – Uzbekistan railway. The ISRS Director emphasized that new routes should not merely facilitate transit but develop into fully fledged economic corridors.
He also highlighted the importance of deepening industrial and digital cooperation. This requires, above all, aligning standards, approaches to implementing joint projects and security protocols to build lasting economic ties between China and the countries of the region.
The current phase of the partnership should be defined by a shift from quantitative growth to qualitative improvement, from trade in goods to industrial cooperation, and from exchanging projects to sharing management experience.
The ISRS Director stressed that modernization works only when partners learn from one another rather than copying external models. This places greater responsibility on think tanks to compare approaches, identify risks early and propose solutions before the need arises.
In this context, Mr. Aripov recalled that President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has repeatedly emphasized the expert community’s important role in long-term planning.
Concluding his address, he expressed confidence that substantive and open dialogue would generate new ideas that could subsequently inform concrete policy decisions and give fresh impetus to cooperation between China and the Central Asian states.
UzA
