Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Friday against U.S. interference in the internal affairs of other countries in a meeting with the leaders of five Central Asian nations in the ancient city of Xian coinciding with the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima.

Xi stressed the importance of standing "firm against external attempts to interfere in domestic affairs of regional countries" in a speech at the first in-person summit of China and the Central Asian countries, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. His remarks were apparently directed at the United States.

The leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan agreed to officially inaugurate biennial summits to deepen cooperation. The next summit will be held in Kazakhstan in 2025.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (3rd from R) attends a photo session with leaders participating in the China-Central Asia Summit in Xian in the central Chinese province of Shaanxi on May 19, 2023. (Pool photo)(Kyodo) ==Kyodo

The meeting was apparently aimed at countering the three-day G-7 summit that opened Friday in the western Japan city, where the leaders are expected to issue a strong warning against Beijing's military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. U.S. President Joe Biden is among the leaders participating in the event.

On Wednesday, Yang Yu, minister of the Chinese Embassy in Japan, conveyed his serious concern to Takehiro Funakoshi, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, about "the negative China-related trends" of the G-7 summit, according to the embassy.

Yang urged Japan to "promote a balanced handling" of China-related issues at the summit and stop making the gathering "a political performance of anti-China containment."

Comparing the China-Central Asia summit and the G-7 meeting, the Global Times, a tabloid affiliated with China's ruling Communist Party, said in an editorial Thursday that there was a stark contrast between "the clean stream of multilateralism" injected in Xian and "the geopolitical sewage" discharged in Hiroshima.

The paper claimed the Xian summit is aimed at promoting mutual respect and equality, while the G-7 gathering demonstrates "the imperial arrogance" and "Washington supremacy."


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