It looks like Putin is getting his Central Asian gas deal after all msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Central Asian and Chinese presidents met at a summit in Xian, China, on May 18-19. This was the first-ever summit of just the Central Asian and Chinese leaders and it comes as the six countries’ foreign policies are evolving to cope with the political fallout from Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine. What did the Xian summit tell us about Central Asian-Chinese relations and the direction those relations are headed? Joining host Bruce Pannier are Giulia Sciorati, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Trento in Italy, whose research focuses on memory and culture in diplomacy, particularly in China’s relations with Central Asia; and Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek.
China will for the first time host an in-person summit of central Asian leaders this week, seeking to cement ties in a region seen as Russia's backyard as its relations with the West sour. President Xi Jinping is expected to discuss deepening economic and security links with counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, former soviet states