Belt and Road Initiative Sparks Universal Security Dialogue in Central Asia

Belt and Road Initiative Promotes Security Cooperation

China has held its first ever public security ministers’ meeting with Central Asian countries as Beijing looks to protect belt and road interests in the region. China’s Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong met his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan for the inaugural Conference of Global Public Security Cooperation Forum on Tuesday in Lianyungang, in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

The forum on public security and internal affairs was intended to establish a sense of a security community and deepen strategic mutual trust and cooperation, Wang said. “China is willing to enhance the capability for counterterrorism and transnational crime fighting, and build an efficient and pragmatic cooperation platform with Central Asian countries to achieve the vision of universal security,” Wang stated.

Importance of Security in Belt and Road

The meeting came a year after the launch of the China Central Asia Summit, which expanded Beijing’s cooperation beyond trade and investment into security and stability. “All parties should ensure the security of major projects under the Belt and Road Initiative, enhance the capability for counterterrorism, and build an efficient platform for transnational crime fighting,” Wang added.

• The forum highlighted the importance of stability in Central Asia, according to Zoon Ahmed Khan, a research fellow at Tsinghua University’s Belt and Road Strategy Institute.
• The dialogue aims to tackle the three evil forces: terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism.
• China recently signed an agreement with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to build a key railway as part of the Belt and Road strategy.

This project, aimed at enhancing land links across Asia, is pivotal for China's trade routes to Europe, bypassing Russia.

Future Prospects

Kyrgyz Parliament Speaker Nurlanbek Shakiev will lead a delegation to China at the invitation of Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee. The ministerial conference on security cooperation coincided with the Global Security Forum, aimed at promoting durable peace.

“Security and development from the perspectives of China, Central Asia, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) are deeply intertwined,” Khan concluded. “Central Asia is a critical region in the SCO and a starting point for the Belt and Road Initiative.”