Forging the Community of Common Destiny between China and Central Asia
文章摘要
As the honorable Vice President mentioned yesterday at the dinner,17 countries were present at this round table,which in reality demonstrates the building of Community of Common Destiny might be quite a challenging task on its own,although there is a lot of potential as well. There are signs that neighborhood diplomacy is becoming a foreign policy priority around the world,and the Chinese-led the Belt and Road Initiative is an excellent empirical reference,which demonstrates that China is also adopting a new diplomatic strategy.As the old Chinese proverb says “a near neighbor is better than a distant cousin”,the concept of the Community of Common Destiny is essentially about the peaceful and stable neighboring environment,which is instrumental for China’s continued rise. Xi Jinping’s emphasis and rhetoric on the importance of Community of Common Destiny underlines that Beijing decided to take a leadership role in transforming regional architecture of international relations.Nonetheless,many questions remain open,and one of them is what really the Community of Common Destiny means,what values this concept does really embody. And as today’s seminar demonstrates,China has a great many neighbors,and not only those 14 states,with which China shares its 22,000 km land borders. As a global power,China is an important neighbor for many states,even for those states,which do not really share their physical borders with it. However,all those states are not equal,they are all different,with different agendas,different interests,politically,economically,and culturally different.A small example is the region which I myself come from,the region of Central Asia,it has been long regarded holistically as one unified region,and as a result many international partners developed relations with the Central Asia states from this perspective,in which they assume the approach towards Central Asia is equal,because Central Asian states have similar historical and cultural identities and they were all part of the Soviet monolith for 75 years. However,in reality the Central Asian states are not equal,and as Rahman has presented,they look at different directions nowadays.So just imagine that there are so many differences between the states,which have been viewed to be related,simply imagine how many states there are then,which are placed along the Silk Road Economic Belt,and which tend to be associated with this idea of the Community of Common Destiny. In other words,there is so much work to be done to reconcile the differences for the sake of the common good,and there is still a long way to go,as a colleague of mine has just mentioned. It might be a bumpy road on its own. But this is not something unachievable. As this event proves,there is a great potential for the mutual and responsible cooperation.We are also different,and yet we try to discuss issues at one table in order to find solutions,which are both inclusive and meaningful. It’s important to understand that constructing a Community of Common Destiny is not a zero-sum game,and as many presenters have spoken yesterday and today,many great achievements are to be unlocked together only,such as stimulation of economic growth through regional trade. And in a similar way,many threats are to be mitigated also together only,such as the threat of Islamic radicalism and terrorism,which we discussed yesterday.I truly understand these are normative aspirations. But we are the ones who actually set those norms. So I am optimistic that we are yet to enjoy many happy returns and achievements in an environment of new normal,and as my colleague mentioned,for the equal benefit,to reduce suspicion and to build mutual trust.
Abstract
As the honorable Vice President mentioned yesterday at the dinner,17 countries were present at this round table,which in reality demonstrates the building of Community of Common Destiny might be quite a challenging task on its own,although there is a lot of potential as well. There are signs that neighborhood diplomacy is becoming a foreign policy priority around the world,and the Chinese-led the Belt and Road Initiative is an excellent empirical reference,which demonstrates that China is also adopting a new diplomatic strategy.
作者简介
Kemel Toktomushev:Director Assistant,Research Fellow,Institute of public Policy and Administration,University of Central Asia,Kyrgyz Republic