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Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan this month, setting the stage for meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to announcements by the two Central Asian nations.
“At the invitation of the country’s head of state, the chairman of the People’s Republic of China is scheduled to visit the Republic of Kazakhstan. . . September,” Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aybek Smadiyarov said on Monday.
According to an announcement on the Uzbekistan government website, Xi will travel to Uzbekistan to attend the Eurasian Political and Security Forum.
The Chinese president is expected to meet Putin at the forum. While the meeting will be shorter than a potential visit to Moscow by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the meeting will reaffirm China’s relationship with Russia.
It follows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last month, amid growing tensions with the US in China’s Central Asian neighbors. The visits are likely to be Xi’s first outside of China since the coronavirus outbreak was declared in early 2020.
Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it was interesting to note that Li Zhanshu, the third-ranking official of the Chinese Communist Party, attended an economic forum with Putin in Vladivostok, Russia this week.
“The message is that China may not go out of its way to help Russia to break sanctions, but it will certainly not throw Russia under the bus,” Gabuyev said. If it is neutral, it is definitely pro-Russian.
The outbreak has remained throughout China, with Xi taking a cautious approach to international travel as Beijing enforces a strict zero-covid policy.
The president’s trip to Central Asia is expected to be his first visit to friendly countries this year, signaling Beijing’s desire to reassert China’s global influence.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said last month that Xi and Putin would attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, while the Chinese president will travel to Thailand after Bali to continue his charm offensive in Southeast Asia, a person familiar with the matter said.
China’s foreign ministry declined to comment on Xi’s travel plans. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Xi plans to travel to Uzbekistan for the annual summit of leaders in Central Asia.
It is unclear whether Xi will travel to Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan first. The press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan said that the date will be announced soon, but the trip will be in September.
This trip comes just weeks before he will be appointed as the head of the Chinese Communist Party and the head of the Central Military Commission. The appointment at the 20th Party Congress, which starts on October 16, will pave the way for an unprecedented third term as president.
Steve Tang, director of the SoC China Institute in London, said the decision to go ahead of the congress “is a statement of confidence in the position”.
Tsang suggested that a plot to oust the Chinese leaders before the Party Congress meetings began.
“This undermines any domestic speculation that they might challenge Xi’s position,” he said.
Additional report by Maqi Ding in Beijing
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