<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Chinese leader Xi Jinping called his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev to congratulate him on winning a third term as the head of the Central Asian country on Monday, Beijing's state media reported.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Xi Jinping pointed out, in recent years, under our joint leadership, China-Uzbekistan relations have achieved breakthrough development, and cooperation in various fields has been comprehensively strengthened," state broadcaster CCTV said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Xi told Mirziyoyev he "very much cherishes the good working relationship and personal friendship with you", CCTV added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am willing to work with you to promote the continuous development of the China-Uzbekistan comprehensive strategic partnership and inject new impetus into the construction of a China-Uzbekistan community with a shared future," Xi said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Preliminary results Monday showed Mirziyoyev will stay in charge of the tightly controlled, gas-rich state until 2030.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 65-year-old has promised to open up Uzbekistan to foreign investment and tourism, and implement key domestic reforms in Central Asia's most populous country.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mirziyoyev, who was running against three largely unknown candidates, won Sunday's election with 87 percent of the vote, the preliminary results showed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China has renewed its push for massive infrastructure projects in Central Asia as Beijing aims to fill a vacuum left in former Soviet states by Russia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In May, Xi hosted Mirziyoyev and other Central Asian leaders for a summit in the northern Chinese city of Xi'an.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Speaking to regional leaders, the Chinese leader said the countries must "fully unleash the potential of traditional cooperation in economy, trade, industrial capacity, energy and transport", according to a state media readout at the time. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>