China’s Xi to go to Central Asia Sept 14-16 for regional assembly

Chinese President Xi Jinping will go to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on Sept. 14-16, the Chinese overseas ministry stated on Monday, in what could be his first official journey to a overseas nation since China all however shut its borders because of COVID-19.

The go to will coincide with a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) within the Uzbek metropolis of Samarkand, and Xi will meet with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, a ministry assertion stated.

The journey underlines China’s strategic ties with Central Asian states at a time when relations with many Western nations have come underneath pressure because of China’s “no limits” partnership with Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal, citing individuals whom it didn’t identify, reported that Xi was contemplating a visit to Central Asia to satisfy with Putin and different leaders on the SCO summit.

Monday’s Chinese overseas ministry assertion didn’t point out Putin.

Xi’s final recognized official journey to a overseas nation was to Myanmar in January 2020, simply earlier than the Chinese authorities declared a public well being emergency with the unfold of the brand new coronavirus.

His final journey exterior of mainland China was on June 30 to Hong Kong to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of the town’s handover from British management in 1997.

In latest months, hypothesis has been rife over which international locations Xi would go to and when such visits would possibly happen.

The SCO is a regional safety bloc launched in 2001 to fight radical Islam and different safety considerations. The group initially consisted of China, Russia and 4 ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, earlier than India and Pakistan joined in 2017.

Last month, a longtime adviser to Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo stated Xi and Putin would attend November’s G20 summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

In mid-October, Xi is broadly anticipated to safe a precedent-breaking third management time period at a once-in-five-years congress of the ruling Communist Party.