Li urges Tajikistan to deepen security ties and protect Chinese citizens
Premier Li Qiang has called for deeper security and intelligence cooperation with Tajikistan to combat extremism and separatism, urging strong measures to protect Chinese citizens. The appeal follows the killing of five Chinese nationals in Tajikistan last year in attacks blamed on militants from Af
Premier Li Qiang called on Monday for deeper security and intelligence cooperation with Tajikistan to fight what Beijing views as extremism and separatism, and said he hoped the country would take "strong measures" to protect Chinese citizens, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Li made the remarks during a meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, saying the two countries should deepen cooperation on law enforcement and security and strengthen intelligence exchanges and sharing, according to Xinhua.
China and Tajikistan should jointly fight the "three evil forces", a term Beijing uses to describe terrorism, separatism and extremism, and safeguard regional peace and stability, Li added.
China has long feared that violence in Central Asia could spill over into its far western region of Xinjiang, home to the mostly Muslim Uyghur people. Beijing says Uyghur militants were behind a string of past attacks in the region.
Late last year, five Chinese nationals were killed in Tajikistan in attacks that authorities said were launched from neighbouring Afghanistan.
Li is not the only high-profile foreign official visiting resource-rich Central Asia this week. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio travelled on Sunday to Uzbekistan, where Li had been before going to Tajikistan.
China, which shares a remote, mountainous border with Tajikistan, is a major investor in the country. Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic of about 11 million people with a secular government, has tense relations with the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan and has previously warned of drug smugglers and illicit gold miners working along the frontier.
The country endured a brutal civil war in the 1990s after the Soviet Union broke apart, during which Rahmon initially rose to power. Tajikistan remains closely aligned with Russia, which maintains a military base there.