July 2, 2024

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Kazakhstan on Tuesday for the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and a state visit to Kazakhstan, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Observers said that the visit to Kazakhstan - the country where Xi made his first foreign visit in 2022 since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and proposed the Silk Road Economic Belt, an essential component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 - underscores the rock-solid bilateral relationship and the high level of political trust built between the two countries and led by head-of-state diplomacy, and that the Central Asian region is of significant importance to China's foreign policy. 

As this year marks the 32nd anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Kazakhstan, the visit will draw a blueprint for future bilateral and regional comprehensive cooperation modes, analysts said, pointing to a wide range of areas for further collaboration, such as jointly safeguarding regional security and boosting connectivity, as well as facilitating people-to-people exchanges under the SCO and BRI frameworks. 

Read more: