Energy is priority, leaders agree

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By Wu Jiao in Tashkent and Li Xiaokun in Beijing (China Daily) 08:29, September 10, 2013

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President Xi Jinping and his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov inspect ceremonial guards of honor before their talks in Tashkent on Monday. Xi is on his first tour of Central Asia since he took office in March. (ding lin / Xinhua)

Uzbekistan, China deepen strategic ties in free trade, oil, anti-terrorism

China and Uzbekistan pledged on Monday to deepen cooperation on energy and anti-terrorism, as President Xi Jinping continued his first visit to China's important Central Asian partner.

Diplomats said the two nations' relations, which have seen "explosive" growth since they established a strategic partnership in 2012, are based on the deep trust between the nations, and especially the leaders, which began two decades ago.

In a joint declaration after talks with Uzbek President Islam Karimov, the two nations vowed to expand energy cooperation, including in oil, natural gas, natural uranium exploration and renewable sources. A gas pipeline already links the two countries.

"Energy is the priority of bilateral cooperation," Karimov said in the meeting, according to a news release issued by the Foreign Ministry.

The two countries also announced they will strengthen cooperation in combating terrorism, separatism and extremism, called "the three evil forces" in China.

The two sides also promised to further help each other safeguard large international activities held by each other.

Zhang Xiao, the Chinese ambassador to Uzbekistan, said ahead of the visit that the two countries have effectively cooperated to fight the "three evil forces" and ensure security at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai Expo.

The two countries, both of which border Afghanistan, also said in the declaration that they have "all along paid great attention to the situation in Afghanistan and its future".