China’s President Xi Jinping will make state visits to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan this week, Beijing said Monday — his first overseas trip since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Russia had already announced last week that Xi will meet with President Vladimir Putin at a summit of leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Uzbekistan as Moscow seeks to strengthen ties with Beijing after it was warned over its invasion in Ukraine has been beaten with unprecedented Western sanctions.
Beijing on Monday confirmed Xi’s attendance at the summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.
The Chinese president will “pay state visits to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan from Wednesday to Friday at the invitation of Presidents Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Shavkat Mirziyoyev,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The SCO consists of China, Russia, India, Pakistan and four Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
The summit in Samarkand, a stop on the ancient Silk Road, takes place on Thursday and Friday.
Putin and Xi last met in Beijing in early February ahead of the Winter Olympics, days before the Russian president sent troops to Ukraine.
Beijing has not condemned Moscow’s interventions in Ukraine and has offered diplomatic protection, blasting Western sanctions and arms sales to Kyiv.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also attend the Samarkand summit, the Indian government said on Sunday, without saying whether Modi would hold bilateral talks with Putin or Xi.
India’s relations with China have been chilly since fighting in 2020 on their disputed Himalayan border left at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead. Modi and Xi have not held bilateral talks since 2019.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who took over as president in April, will also attend the summit, a Foreign Ministry official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
China is Pakistan’s closest economic ally, although ties have been strained recently over the scaled-down CPEC project and attacks by separatist militants on Chinese nationals and interests.
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The trip will be Xi’s first outside China’s borders in more than two and a half years.
Most recently, the Chinese President made a state visit to Myanmar in January 2020. A few days after his return, the entire city of Wuhan was locked down due to a Covid outbreak.
Since then, Xi has largely conducted his diplomacy virtually.
But in February he hosted several foreign leaders during the Beijing Winter Olympics – his first face-to-face meetings with heads of state since the pandemic.
Xi is gearing up for a crucial biannual congress of the ruling Communist Party in October, which is widely expected to secure an unprecedented third term as president.
The event, which opens Oct. 16 in Beijing, will also unveil a new top leadership lineup and likely cement Xi’s hold on the party.
Former Chinese leaders generally refrained from overseas travel in the weeks leading up to the convention, when behind-the-scenes power struggles often intensified.
China and Russia, former Cold War allies with a tumultuous relationship, have grown closer in recent years in what they call a “borderless” relationship that acts as a counterbalance to the global dominance of the United States.
Last week, Beijing’s top lawmaker Li Zhanshu became the top-ranking Communist Party politician to travel to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
