Foreign Minister Wang Yi (third from left), Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Murat Nurtleu (center), Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev (second from left), Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin (second from right), Uzbek Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov (third from right), Turkmenistan's Ambassador to China Parahat Durdyev (right) and Secretary-General of the Secretariat of the China-Central Asia Mechanism Sun Weidong (left) pose for a group photo at the sixth China-Central Asia Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Saturday.[Photo/Xinhua]

　　China and all five of its Central Asian neighbors have reached fresh consensus and made productive action plans for shoring up free trade, building up connectivity and upholding multilateralism, as their senior diplomats met on Saturday in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for the sixth China-Central Asia Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

　　The senior diplomats engaged in in-depth discussions on advancing China-Central Asia cooperation in various aspects. The meeting was expected to pave the way for the second China-Central Asia Summit, which will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, in June.

　　The gathering sent a strong message of renewed unity among the six nations to jointly reject unilateralism and protectionism amid lingering tariff wars and trade wars initiated by Washington, officials said.

　　The China-Central Asia mechanism was launched in 2020, and the first China-Central Asia Summit was held in 2023 in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

　　All members of the mechanism exchanged views on documents to be signed at the upcoming summit, and they vowed further coordination to make the summit a great success, according to a joint statement about the Saturday meeting released by China's Foreign Ministry.