Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Kazakhstan on Wednesday for a three-day visit to the Central Asian nation and neighbouring Uzbekistan, his first trip outside China in more than 2.5 years.
Xi’s charter plane landed in the capital Nur-Sultan in the afternoon.
During his trip, Xi will also discuss issues of regional and international importance with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Uzbek leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev, China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Xi is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, which begins on Thursday. Leaders of the Beijing-led Eurasian bloc of eight countries are meeting to discuss political, economic and regional security cooperation.
Xi’s last official trip outside China was a state visit to Myanmar in January 2020, days before the Chinese city of Wuhan was locked down to stop Covid-19 from spreading at the start of the pandemic.
