Foreign Ministry: China and the United States provoked Attempts at Sino-Asianrelations must have been in vain. The

US State Department announced that Secretary of State Pompeii will visitKazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries early next month, and will go toTashkent to attend the "C5 1" Foreign Ministers' Meeting. TheXinjiang issue will be discussed at the bilateral talks and the"C5-1" meeting. In response, Geng Shuang, a spokesman for theChinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a regular press conference today(31st) that China and Central Asian countries are friendly neighbors andstrategic partners. Both sides are interdependent and share commonsecurity. These five countries are close neighbors of Xinjiang. Whatis the real situation in Xinjiang? These five Central Asian countries areclearer and have a greater say than the United States. If I remembercorrectly, at the Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the "Five Central AsianCountries and the United States" held in September this year, the United Stateshad tried to pour dirty water on China and stir up alienation, butfailed. If the United States wanted to repeat the same tactic this time,the result would be futile.

The Central Asian countries have always understood and supported China onborder issues, and positively evaluated China's counter-terrorism andanti-extreme measures, which we highly appreciate. We firmly believe thatthe governments and peoples of Central Asian countries are determined todevelop good-neighborly and friendly relations with China and jointly combatthe "three forces" with China. Any deceptiveness and slanderwill not work, and no alienation or provocation will succeed.

For a long time, China and Central Asian countries have respected each other'sdevelopment paths in accordance with their national conditions. The twosides have always supported each other on issues involving each other's coreinterests and major concerns. The two sides have carried out fruitfulcooperation under the framework of the construction of the