Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Kazakhstan on September 14, his first overseas trip since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced this on Monday, international news agencies report. It would be the first time in more than two years that Xi will leave mainland China. At the beginning of 2020, the country introduced an extremely strict corona policy and closed its borders. Beijing has not yet confirmed the visit.
Xi has an appointment with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a spokesman for the Kazakh ministry said during a briefing. “A number of bilateral documents” will be signed, but more details about the visit have not been disclosed. China maintains close ties with Kazakhstan and extracts minerals, metals and energy from the country, among other things.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Xi is preparing for a trip to Central Asia. He would, among other things, attend a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on 15 and 16 September, the day after his possible visit to Kazakhstan, in the Uzbek city of Samarkand. The SCO, led by China and Russia, is an Asian variant of NATO.
Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is also expected to attend the summit, have strengthened their ties in recent months. Shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, China and Russia stated that their relationship had not been this good since the 1950s and that their cooperation knew “no borders”.