China, Kyrgyzstan ink deals to cement pragmatic cooperation

China and Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday signed a number of cooperative documents in finance, culture and energy after talks between the prime ministers of the two countries.

"China is willing to discuss industrial capacity and investment cooperation with Kyrgyzstan," said Premier Li Keqiang during talks with his Kyrgyz counterpart Temir Sariyev in Beijing.

Sariyev is paying an official visit to China. He just attended the two-day 14th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) prime ministers' meeting in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou.

He said Kyrgyzstan is ready to align its development strategy with China and actively promote cooperation on industrial capacity.

Li voiced the willingness of providing technology and production equipment to Kyrgyzstan, in a bid to help the country speed up its industrialization and independent development.

He urged the two sides to push forward cooperation in infrastructure construction and called for early resumption of the working group meeting on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway project.

He hoped the two sides to advance the construction of big cooperative projects, including the north-south highway in Kyrgyzstan and a highway around the Lake Issyk Kul.

The premier also supported the two countries to speed up construction on cross-border transportation passageway and set up port cooperation mechanism.

In the context of complicated international and regional security situation, Li said China and Kyrgyzstan should strengthen law-enforcement and security cooperation to cope with the threat of terrorism.

As Kyrgyzstan will host the 15th SCO prime ministers' meeting, Li said China will work with Kyrgyzstan to bolster the organizing matters of the SCO and the pragmatic cooperation among SCO members.

Sariyev welcomed China's investment in transportation, energy and social infrastructure.

He said Kyrgyzstan is willing to work with China to push forward infrastructure construction cooperation and carry out the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway project as soon as possible.

After their talks, the two prime ministers signed a joint communique between their governments.

In the communique, the two sides agreed to promote pragmatic cooperation within the framework of joint construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

The two sides decided to enhance financial cooperation and accelerate settlement in local currency.

The two sides will strengthen cooperation on expanding the export of Kyrgyz agricultural products to China and will hold consultation on Chinese market access of Kyrgyz meat products.

In the document, the two countries vowed to enhance information sharing and jointly fight the "Three Evil Forces" of terrorism, separatism, and extremism, including the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

The two countries also agreed to enhance coordination within the framework of United Nations, the SCO and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). Endi