http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/
Dr Usen Suleimen is ambassador at large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kazakhstan. Dr Xiaojiang Yu is associate professor in the department of geography at the Hong Kong Baptist University.
The visit of Xi Jinping, China’s president, to Kazakhstan last weekend and the signing of $30bn of new agreements is another symbol of the growing closeness between two of the world’s largest countries. It is a relationship built on mutual challenges, geographic proximity and energy, as China increasingly looks to central Asia to power its growing economy.
But these links have also raised alarm bells in the west. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, the region’s main producers of oil and gas, have been warned against letting China dominate their economies. China has found itself accused of a modern colonialism as part of a new ‘Great Game’ and of plundering the natural resources of poorer, weaker countries.
From Kazakhstan’s perspective, such fears are badly misplaced. Our two countries have had warm relations for more than 20 years, fostered by close links at senior government level. We cooperate on a range of foreign policy issues, including through the Shanghai Co-operation Organization and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia.