Kazakhstan President’s visit to China, online chat with Internet users and CICA summit get 20 million views: Chinese media

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev's state visit to China held on May 19-20, and the Shanghai summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA, May 21) have become the main information events for the Chinese Nursultan Nazarbayev's state visit to China Chinese media highlighted the welcoming ceremony of the Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev before their talks with the Chinese President of Xi Jinping at the Square of Xijiao State Guest Hotel Conference Center in Shanghai. Following the talks, at the witness of Xi Jinping, Nursultan Nazarbayev received the Silk Road Peace Prize. As initiated by Chinese civil sectors, selected by all circles of society, and presented by the Committee of Silk Road Peace Prize, the prize aims to carry forward the spirit of Silk Road and commend organizations and personnel from various countries who made great contributions to maintaining world peace, and promoting regional stability and national reconciliation. According to the results of the Kazakh- Chinese negotiations leading Chinese state media ("Xinhua", "People's Daily", and others) have published a variety of materials, the main idea of which is the idea of an unprecedented level of political mutual trust and comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. Bilateral cooperation has a promising future as the two countries push forward their own development plans. Xi called on the two sides to promote mid- and long-term economic cooperation. China welcomes Kazakhstan to actively participate in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, he said. He hoped the two countries to deepen energy and resources cooperation, strengthen cooperation on agriculture, telecommunications, creative industries, high-technology and other fields. The two countries should also push forward local cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, Xi said, noting the two sides are planning cooperation in adjacent areas. China is ready to strengthen cooperation with Kazakhstan in combating terrorism, separatism, extremism, drug trafficking and safeguarding network and information security, said the Chinese president. Xi also urged the two sides to enhance coordination in the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to jointly safeguard regional security and stability. Great attention was paid to the number of agreements reached (over 25) in different areas, providing over USD 10 billion of Chinese investment in Kazakhstan. Representatives of the Chinese media , touching conducted by PRC President parallels between Kazakhstan's "Kazakhstan-2050" Strategy and China's comprehensively deepening reforms, note the strategic nature of thinking and visionary of the heads of the two states. Xinhua China's largest news agency devoted a separate page to the online conversation between Nursultan Nazarbayev and the Chinese Internet users. Total the head of state was asked more than 1,000 questions. Many Chinese Internet users admitted that they were fans of the Kazakh Leader, and asked about his life experience, favorite sports and, in general, a personality of Elbasy. Total number of readers of online conversation exceeded 20 million. More than 100 different media materials have been published following this unprecedented event. It is noteworthy that the correspondent of MIA "Kazinform" Ruslan Suleimenov had the exclusive right to cover this online conversation held in "Dongjiang" residence. CICA Summit "China Daily" newspaper informed that the CICA summit, initiated by Nazarbayev more than 20 years ago, has acquired special significance. Shanghai meeting was the first large-scale international event held under the chairmanship of China's President Xi Jinping. "As a platform initiated by President Nursultan Nazarbayev over 20 years ago, the CICA is now still of great significance for the Asia today. China is willing to work together with all sides concerned to ensure the success of the Summit for a promising future of the CICA", said Xi Jinping. Emphasizing high representativeness of the forum ( 11 foreign heads of states, 1 head of government, and 10 heads of international organizations - in total more than 46 foreign delegations), Chinese commentators have noted that the CICA summit for the first time ever was attended by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. According to media, this indicates an increase in the role and potential significance of the Meeting in considering not only regional but global queries. Comments of Chinese experts In an interview with «The Global Times» Vice-President of the Chinese Institute for International Studies, Hong Guo stressed that the CICA is the largest multilateral forum on security in Asia. "Unlike APEC and the SCO, in the functioning of which considerable attention is paid to economic issues, the CICA at this stage focuses on security issues across the Asian continent", he said. Expert of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Pan Guang expressed confidence in the future formation of the CICA as an influential and effective Organization for Security and Development in Asia (OSDA), as suggested by the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev during the previous summit. Professor of International Relations at Fudan University Shen Dingli lamented that the real impact of CICA on security in Asia remains relatively modest. However, he agreed with the Kazakh leader that the CICA will make greater achievements as China is going to take over the presidency. Chinese media's attention was paid to the fact that Xi Jinping stressed speaking at the opening of the CICA summit that ‘matters in Asia ultimately must be taken care of by Asians, Asia's problems ultimately must be resolved by Asians, and Asia's security ultimately must be protected by Asians," he said. Mr Xi said each country should play its part in preserving regional security. "A country, in seeking to determine its own security, should not sacrifice that of other countries... no country should seek to monopolise regional security affairs and trample on the rights of others," he said. He added that such a situation would do no good as "a Kazakh saying goes: Blowing out another's lamp will only burn one's beard".