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Bloomberg
Xi Jinping will visit Kazakhstan next week for a state visit, Interfax reported, in what would be the Chinese president’s first trip overseas in more than two and a half years.
Xi accepted the Kazakh president’s invitation to visit the Central Asian nation on Sept. 14, the Russian news agency reported, citing Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov. The two leaders will sign a variety of agreements during the visit, it added.
China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The trip would mark a return to the world stage for Xi, the only Group of 20 leader who still hasn’t traveled abroad throughout the pandemic. While Xi made a brief visit to Hong Kong in July, he hasn’t set foot outside Chinese territory since January 2020.
The timing would be unusual even in pre-pandemic times. Chinese leaders rarely travel abroad in the months of intense domestic politicking before the twice-a-decade party congress, which is set to start in Beijing on Oct. 16. Xi is widely expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term at the gathering.
Yet geopolitical tensions are running high in the wake of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip last month to Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory. China has sought to gain diplomatic support for its position on Taiwan, pushing back on calls by the US and its allies to exercise restraint.
It’s also possible that Xi will attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization scheduled for Sept. 15-16 in neighboring Uzbekistan.