Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Kazakhstan on his first foreign visit since pandemic
Asia-Pacific, News September 15, 2022 1 Comment on Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Kazakhstan on his first foreign visit since pandemicChina’s President Xi Jinping embarked on his first foreign trip after almost two and a half years. Xi arrived in Kazakhstan on September 14, 2022, as he made his first stop during a two-leg visit to Central Asia.
President Xi made a stop in Kazakhstan before he traveled to the neighboring country of Uzbekistan where he is going to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leader’s summit, a Beijing-led bloc of eight Eurasian countries (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan).
This would be the first time during the SCO summit that President Xi would meet his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin for an in-person meeting since he started the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The last time the two leaders held an in-person meeting was during the Winter Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing, only two weeks before Russia started its “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.
President Xi was welcomed at the Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport by Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, where he also received a guard of honor. According to the Chinese state-owned news agency, the president was accompanied by senior government and party officials including the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Ding Xuexiang, Foreign Policy Chief Yang Jiechi, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Head of the National Development and Reform Commission He Lifeng, as well as other top officials from the economic planning agency of China.
A press statement from the office of the Kazakh president stated the two leaders held a bilateral meeting in which the sides discussed “cooperation in the transport, logistics and agro-industrial sectors, and also considered the issue of using trans-boundary water resources”. The two countries also signed bilateral agreements to boost the “prospects for strengthening the Kazakh-Chinese comprehensive strategic partnership.”
According to Chinese media reports, President Xi reassured Tokayev that China stands by Kazakhstan and firmly supports the efforts for “safeguarding national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Kazakhstan.
President Xi also commented on the reforms that the current Kazakh government is trying to implement. He stated that “[We] firmly support the reform measures the president has taken to maintain national stability and development, and firmly oppose any forces that interfere in Kazakhstan’s internal affairs.”
President Xi has chosen Central Asia as the first destination for the continuation of his foreign trip after a long pause due to the pandemic. This sends a clear message about Beijing’s foreign policy priorities. Over the past decade, China has worked closely with its western neighbors and especially with the countries in Central Asia to expand its reach towards new markets through its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). President Xi’s visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is a nod to China’s commitment to the BRI project and its prospects.
President Xi’s last international visit was to Myanmar in January 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic started spreading across China and resulted in a nation-wide lockdown and severe travel restrictions.
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[…] summit was the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. China’s President is on his first foreign tour since the pandemic started in […]