Coincidence or design? Just as the heads of state and governments of the Group of Seven (G-7) most industrialised states convened in Japan for their yearly summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted his own top-level gathering with the leaders of five Central Asian nations.

Predictably, diplomats dismissed this juxtaposition of the two summits as purely a scheduling coincidence. And, of course, the two events are not equally ranked: As respectful as one wants to be to the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, one is forced to admit that, by any yardstick, the Central Asian leaders convened by China do not have the same combined power as the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States at the G-7 summit.