Chinese president's envoy to visit 5 Central Asian nations

A senior Chinese legislator will visit five Central Asian nations from Jan. 5 to 14 as a special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Friday. Chen Zhili, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), will visit Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan at the invitations of the governments of the five countries, respectively. Chen will attend activities celebrating the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the five nations, said Hong. China successively established diplomatic relationships with the aforementioned nations in early January of 1992. In the past 20 years, China and the five countries have consistently kept a sound momentum of healthy, steady development in diplomatic relations based on mutual respect and equal treatment, Hong said. Mutual political trust between China and the five nations has been constantly deepened. Fruitful achievements have been made in pragmatic cooperations and security cooperation, and vigorous developments have been seen in cultural cooperation, he said. Hong also said China and the five countries have positively contributed to safeguarding and promoting the world's peace, stability and development through close coordination and cooperation in handling international and regional affairs. "Taking the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations as a new starting point, China is willing to boost the friendly relations and mutual-benefit cooperation with the Central Asian countries in an all-around way, and will push the development of bilateral relations between China and the five nations to a new level," said Hong.