Zhao Xiangmo, President of Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology (XAUAT), met with a Kyrgyz delegation led by Ainura Isirailova, Head of the Department of Higher, Secondary Vocational and Postgraduate Education of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Education and Science, and Tursunbaev Zhanbolot Zhanyshovich, Rector of Osh Technological University (OshTU), on the morning of May 14, having an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral cooperation in establishing the XAUAT-OshTU Institute of Area Studies.

Present at the meeting were Akmataliev Asanbek Turgunbaevich, Vice Rector of OshTU, Abdullaev Ulan, Director of OshTU Department of Educational Affairs, Kadyrova Nadira, an exchange student majoring in architecture, and heads of XAUAT International Relations Office, Personnel Department, School of Language, Literature and Law, College of Architecture, Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovation Research and School of International Education. Vice President of XAUAT Chen Rong chaired the meeting.

At the opening ceremony of the 2025 Conference of the SRIAATU held in XAUAT in the afternoon, the XAUAT-OshTU Institute of Area Studies was inaugurated by Ainura Isirailova, Shen Xuefeng who is a Vice Director of the Education Department of Shaanxi Provincial Government, Tursunbaev Zhanbolot Zhanyshovich and Zhao Xiangmo.

The institute serves as a comprehensive academic platform for area studies. As a cross-disciplinary research institution, it takes architectural technology as the core discipline and focuses on three major fields of green infrastructure construction in Central Asia, protection of cultural heritages and green development of mineral resources, with the aim of becoming an interdisciplinary, comprehensive, innovative research platform and high-end think tank covering academic research, talent training, scientific research, and international exchanges.

Its purpose is to actively respond to national strategic needs and responsibilities of China as a major country, support the mutual learning among global civilizations and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, promote interdisciplinary studies and innovation in knowledge system, give full play to the advantages of XAUAT in liberal arts, science and engineering, and carry out in-depth and systematic country and regional research with a focus on Central Asia, so as to contribute XAUAT’s wisdom and strength to the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative.