Kazakhstan sees cooperation with China as priority: experts

Kazakh scholars and analysts say the country shares a strong brotherhood and a "like-minded" view of the international world older with China, with whom it also sees cooperation as a top priority.

Ties between the two sides were boosted this week as Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in the Kazakh capital Astana for a state visit on Tuesday, where he also attended the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which concluded Thursday.

At least 20 major documents were signed at the summit, which has given a new impetus to future collaboration.

Prior to Xi's visit, a signed article from the Chinese president was published in Kazakh media outlets in which he described the two sides as sharing a "neighborly friendship", and this view was echoed by Kazakh scholars.

"We also consider our Chinese brother as our brotherhood nation first, and second, as our key strategic partner. This special alliance of Astana and Beijing, with our shared history, [we have] very much understandable principles on how we see the international world order. All of these measures actually help us to be real like-minded countries," said Miras Zhiyenbayev, senior fellow and head of the Foreign Policy and International Studies Program at the Maqsut Narikbayev University.

Others note that given the current global challenges, there is a need for greater cooperation among SCO members at both the regional and international levels.

"Mr. Xi Jinping said that there is more and more protectionism in the world right now. So within the SCO, we have to put economic cooperation as a priority, especially in energy cooperation because China is the biggest consumer of energy in Eurasia. And countries like Kazakhstan, Central Asian countries, Iran, and other countries from the Persian Gulf like Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), they are strong in exporting energy, oil and gas," said Yersultan Zhanseitov, a senior expert of the Institute of World Economics and Politics.

Kazakhstan sees cooperation with China as priority: experts

A new batch of China Media Group's (CMG) 8K ultra-high-definition (UHD) live broadcast vehicles for the Paris Olympics was unloaded in the Netherlands on Sunday local time, before heading to France.

In addition to the broadcast van in red, an auxiliary vehicle was also disembarked at the Port of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe.

With a length of 17 meters, a width of 2.5 meters and a weight of 40 tons, the live broadcast vehicle, carrying state-of-the-art broadcast equipment, has very high requirements on the port's lifting capacity.

To ensure smooth unloading, the Port of Rotterdam convened a pre-ship meeting and specifically designed a customized lifting plan. Prior to the actual lift, over two hours were spent testing and adjusting the lifting equipment.

As planned, the broadcast vehicles will run all the way from Rotterdam to Belgium, and sail to Paris. As a leading broadcaster and the international media organization with the most broadcasting rights for the Paris Olympic Games, CMG is set to orchestrate its largest-scale Olympic Games coverage to date.

A production and technical service team of over 2,000 technicians will be responsible for producing pool signals for the four major events: gymnastics, table tennis, badminton, and rock climbing.

Meanwhile, the live broadcast will last over 400 hours, with more than 11,000 hours of high-quality signals for the competitions broadcast and distributed through television channels and new media terminals.

For the first time abroad, CMG's Olympic broadcast production will be delivered entirely in 4K ultra-high-definition.

CMG broadcast vehicles for Paris Olympics unloaded at Port of Rotterdam