Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visits Central Asia, Russia accuses him of undermining "decades of economic relations between regional countries and Russia"
2024-08-10
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This is a photo taken on July 2 of Independence Square in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan from August 9 to 11, and attended the first Japan-Central Asian Five Countries Summit held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
It is reported that about 50 representatives of Japanese companies will accompany Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on this visit to confirm cooperation plans with local companies in Central Asia. It is expected that in the future, active cooperation will be carried out with local companies in the fields of uranium resource development, decarbonization technology, digital health services, etc.
Japanese government officials revealed that in order to promote Japanese companies' investment in Central Asia, the state-owned Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) will establish a five-year credit line with a total amount of 300 billion yen to provide trade insurance for Japanese companies exporting or investing in Central Asia.
Yoshimasa Hayashi, the chief cabinet secretary of Japan and the United States, said the summit will issue a joint statement and launch a new initiative focusing on cooperation in areas such as decarbonization, strengthening supply chains and cultivating human resources. It is reported that Japan plans to announce an economic assistance plan for Central Asia at the Central Asia-Japan Summit. The core of the plan is to promote decarbonization, establish trade routes and promote people-to-people exchanges. The plan is expected to be officially announced in a joint statement after the summit in Kazakhstan.
In the field of decarbonization, Japanese companies will provide technology and loans to support projects such as natural gas processing. For example, Japan's Itochu Corporation and Kawasaki Heavy Industries will cooperate with a state-owned enterprise in Turkmenistan to build a plant that uses natural gas to produce gasoline and introduce technology to reduce methane emissions during natural gas production. Japan also plans to introduce skilled workers from the region to address domestic labor shortages.
In addition, another focus of the aid plan is that Japan will provide support to help the region build an international transport route across the Caspian Sea to bypass Russia and connect Central Asia and Europe. In response to questions about Japan's increased activities in Central Asia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zakharova responded on August 7, saying that "Japan's attempt to infiltrate Central Asia, thousands of kilometers away, is not due to "economic interests" but is the result of the influence of US policies, trying to undermine "the economic relations formed between the countries in the region and Russia for decades" and to win over Central Asian countries to accept the Western "rules-based order" ideology, which is anti-Russian.
Zakharova said that Russia always respects the willingness of neighboring countries to develop mutually beneficial cooperation with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, but Japanese officials are mainly concerned about the interests of their own companies and their unimpeded access to developing markets. The real purpose of Japan's economic commitment is to make recipient countries dependent on external capital and technology by providing development aid projects. Zakharova also said that Russia believes that Central Asian partners will use their unique wisdom to distinguish between mutually beneficial cooperation and plans to reduce their countries to the status of neo-colonial vassals of the West. The destructiveness of the latter and the serious cost of losing relations with Russia are obvious.
Author: Zhao Zhongqi
Text: Zhao Zhongqi, our reporter in Bishkek Photo: Xinhua News Agency Editor: Shen Qinhan Responsible Editor: Liu Chang
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