Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 23　

Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

  At the invitation of President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev paid a state visit to the People's Republic of China from April 22 to 24, 2025.

  The two heads of state held talks in a friendly and friendly atmosphere, highly praised the achievements of China-Arab relations in the past 33 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations, and reiterated that the two countries regard each other as strategic partners for priority, reliability and win-win cooperation. In order to continuously consolidate political mutual trust, strengthen mutual support, carry out all-round cooperation, and better benefit the people of both countries, both sides agreed to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership.

  1. Both sides firmly support each other in their development path chosen by their own people and in line with their national conditions, firmly support each other in safeguarding their core interests, and safeguarding their respective sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. Afghanistan recognizes that there is only one China in the world, that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and that the Government of the People's Republic of China is the only legal government representing the entire China. The Afghan side firmly opposes any form of "Taiwan independence" and firmly supports the Chinese government in achieving national reunification.

  China firmly supports the peace agenda proposed by Afghanistan and believes that geopolitical plots aimed at supporting confrontation will only backfire.

  2. Both sides stated that they will take the diplomacy of the head of state as the strategic guide and the important consensus of the head of state as the fundamental guideline to promote the steady and long-term development of bilateral relations.

  Both sides support the Communist Party of China and the New Azerbaijani Party to strengthen political dialogue. The two sides are willing to strengthen mechanism exchanges between the two governments and promote practical cooperation. The two sides support exchanges between the legislative bodies of the two countries, including communication and cooperation among international and regional organizations. The two sides are willing to hold regular consultations between the two foreign ministries.

  3. The two sides agreed to strengthen the docking of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative with Azerbaijan's national development strategy for the "Revival of the Silk Road" and the economic and social development strategy in 2030, jointly build modernization, and jointly create a new space for win-win development with a higher level, more resilient and more sustainable.

  4. The two sides are willing to continue to strengthen the coordination and guidance role of the Intergovernmental Economic and Trade Cooperation Commission, and decided to establish an investment cooperation working group to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the fields of trade, investment, green energy, digital economy, etc., and promote high-quality development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation. The two sides are committed to gradually expanding mutual market access to green and high-quality agricultural products, and jointly create good conditions for the economic and trade development of the two countries.

  The two sides are willing to initiate negotiations on the free trade agreement to provide high-level institutional guarantees for the two sides to deepen cooperation in the fields of trade and investment.

  China welcomes Afghanistan to actively participate in major exhibitions such as the China International Import Expo, China Import and Export Commodity Fair, China International Service Trade Fair, and China International Investment and Trade Fair, and supports Afghanistan to use the trade centers, national pavilions and Chinese e-commerce platforms opened in China to carry out theme promotion and docking activities. Afghanistan welcomes advanced Chinese companies to participate in large-scale exhibitions and forums held in Azerbaijan.

  5. The two sides are willing to continuously deepen cooperation in the industrial field and actively promote industrial digital transformation. Support enterprises from both countries to consolidate, deepen and expand cooperation in petrochemical, metallurgy, textiles, medicines, machinery and equipment in accordance with business principles.

  6. The two sides are willing to actively expand renewable energy cooperation, help the energy transformation and sustainable economic and social development of the two countries, and jointly promote the construction of a global clean energy cooperative partnership.

  7. The two sides highly appreciate the cooperation between the two countries in the field of transportation and are willing to continue to promote the construction of transportation infrastructure and improve logistics and transportation efficiency, and promote regional connectivity.

  The two sides highly appreciate the signed "Agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan on International Multimodal Transportation". China is willing to cooperate with Azerbaijan and other countries along the route to continuously improve the level of customs clearance facilitation and cargo transportation efficiency, and jointly create a safe and stable China-Europe cross-Caspian express route. The two sides are willing to speed up the negotiation and signing of the international road transport agreement between the two governments, improve the level of facilitation of China-Arab international road transport, and provide support for the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides.

  Both sides noticed that the Global Sustainable Transport Summit Forum held by China is of positive significance to promoting sustainable transportation cooperation between the two countries.

  8. Both sides encourage scientific research institutions and scientific researchers to carry out joint research, technology transfer and results transformation in areas of common interest, and jointly build a joint scientific research platform.

  9. The two sides agreed that they will continue to send international students through multiple channels, support the development of Confucius Institutes in Azerbaijan, and encourage schools in the two countries to carry out Chinese and Azerbaijani language teaching and establish cooperative partnerships at all levels and types of educational institutions.

  The two sides encourage cooperation between the cultural and artistic institutions of the two countries, support mutual cultural day, enhance mutual understanding between the two peoples, and promote exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.

  The two sides are willing to strengthen communication and coordination of tourism policies, encourage tourism promotion activities in each other's countries, support tourism enterprises, industry associations and other institutions of the two countries to carry out business docking, and jointly promote mutual delivery of tourists and personnel exchanges.

  The two sides will further expand cooperation in the fields of health, sports, film and television, and strengthen friendly exchanges among youth and academic institutions.

  The two sides support expanding cooperation in the media field through mutual visits, exchange of information and experience exchanges.

  The two sides are willing to further promote the facilitation of personnel exchanges and welcome the negotiation of agreements between the two governments on exempting visas for citizens with ordinary passports to promote exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

  Both sides support the partnership established by the Geidal Aliyev Foundation, the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's Good-Neighborly Friendship Committee, and the deepening of contacts between Nizami Gangawei International Center and relevant Chinese associations and institutions.

  10. Both sides stress that terrorism, separatism and extremism pose a serious threat to national security and regional stability and need to be jointly prevented and responded. It is necessary to strengthen communication and exchanges between the law enforcement and security departments of the two countries, jointly combat drug crimes, transnational organized crimes, and respond to challenges such as cybersecurity. The two sides are willing to jointly ensure the safety of cooperative projects and corporate personnel of the two countries.

  The two sides emphasized the importance of strengthening international cooperation in humanitarian mine clearance. Afghanistan appreciates China's support for its mine clearance cause. China is willing to continue to cooperate through material assistance and technical support to provide practical assistance to Afghanistan to improve its mine clearance capabilities.

  11. China congratulates Afghanistan on its successful hosting of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). Both sides appreciate the historic achievements and breakthroughs made by COP29 and the important contributions to global actions to combat climate change.

  The two sides call on all parties to safeguard the global climate governance process and fully and accurately fulfill the obligations and responsibilities of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement; urge developed countries to face up to their historical responsibilities and provide financial, technical and capacity-building support to developing countries to help them improve their ability to respond to climate change. The two sides will continue to strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation in responding to climate change and make greater contributions to global climate governance.

  China highly appreciates the initiative of the "Declaration on Cross-sectoral Action Routes for Resilient and Healthy Cities" as the chairman of the country during the COP29 period.

  China has noticed that the 13th World City Forum will be held in Baku in 2026, and will support this and maintain close and fruitful cooperation with Afghanistan.

  12. China supports Azerbaijan to join the World Trade Organization as soon as possible. Both sides support the promotion of international financial structure reform to better reflect changes in the world economic structure. Support the promotion of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, oppose unilateralism, protectionism and bullying, oppose the destruction of international trade rules, jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system, and achieve common prosperity.

  13. Both sides are committed to maintaining the international system with the United Nations at its core, the international order based on international law, and the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, oppose hegemony and power politics, promote the common values ​​of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom for all mankind, and promote the construction of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind.

  14. Both sides are willing to promote the improvement of the global governance system, uphold the principle of consultation, joint construction and sharing, adhere to multilateralism, support the United Nations to play a central and coordinated role, and enhance the representativeness and voice of emerging market countries and developing countries. The two sides are willing to continue to work closely in multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations.

  15. Afghanistan actively supports China's global development initiative, global security initiative and global civilization initiative. Afghanistan is willing to join the "Global Development Initiative Group" to gather strength to accelerate the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We are willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China on global security issues and jointly promote peace and security. The Afghan side highly appreciates China's resolution on the "International Day of Dialogue of Civilizations" proposed by the United Nations and is willing to jointly advocate respect for civilization diversity and actively promote cultural exchanges and cooperation. China supports Afghanistan's efforts to promote the "Baku Process" initiative and supports Afghanistan to hold a global forum within the framework of the initiative, believing that the forum is an important global platform to encourage cross-cultural dialogue.

  16. Afghanistan supports China as the rotating presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, appreciates China's leadership of the high-quality development of the SCO through practical actions, and is willing to actively participate in the "SCO Year of Sustainable Development" activities and deepen cooperation with the SCO countries in various fields. China supports Afghanistan in improving its legal status in the SCO.

  17. China supports Afghanistan as the chairman of the Asian Conference on Cooperation and Trustworthiness Measures, and highly praised Afghanistan for holding a series of activities on the theme of "Stronger Asia Information - Asia's regional connectivity, digitalization, and sustainable growth" to promote the development of Asia Information.

  18. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev thanked President of the People's Republic of China for his warm and friendly reception to the Azerbaijan delegation and invited President Xi Jinping to visit Azerbaijan when both sides are convenient for them.

  President of the People's Republic of China President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

  Xi Jinping Ilham Aliyev

  April 23, 2025 in Beijing

[Editor in charge: Zhang Qiaosu]