China's Foreign Ministry announced on June 30 that President Xi Jinping will attend the 24th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana and pay state visits to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan from July 2 to July 6.
The announcement, on the ministry's official website, quotes spokesperson Hua Chunying as saying the Kazakh and Tajik visits will come at the invitation of those Central Asian states' respective leaderships.
"From July 2 to 6, President Xi Jinping will attend the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Astana and, at the invitation of President [Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev] of the Republic of Kazakhstan and President Emomali Rahmon of the Republic of Tajikistan, pay state visits to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan," the ministry said.
The SCO, a political and security grouping, was launched by China and Russia in 2001.
Its July 3-4 summit comes with SCO members -- which include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan but not Turkmenistan among the post-Soviet Central Asian republics -- expected to focus in part on economy and energy issues but also grappling with fallout from Russia's war on Ukraine and other geopolitical issues.
Beijing has continued and intensified cooperation with Moscow since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, days after Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed a new "no limits" partnership in part to counter Western power and influence.
Russia was Astana's largest trading partner when the war broke out, and the attack on Ukraine and the international backlash have posed additional challenges for Kazakh diplomacy, society, and the economy as Astana has sought to maintain neutrality.
SEE ALSO: Is China Exporting Its Political Model To The World? A New Report Says Yes.A recent report by the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, alleged that China was experimenting with spreading its authoritarian model to other countries.
The gunning down of a Kazakh opposition activist and journalist in Ukraine earlier this month raised fresh questions about possible authoritarian trends and dissent in Kazakhstan.
Natalya Sadyqova, the wife of Aidos Sadyqov, who remains hospitalized in Kyiv, has called his June 18 shooting an attempt to silence him over reporting she and Sadyqov have done on Russian influence in Kazakhstan.
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In January 2022, Kazakh President Toqaev allowed Russian troops to help quell deadly unrest that he suggested was part of an internal power struggle against people connected to Kazakhstan's former leadership, in a move that raised concerns of tighter security and military reliance on outside powers including Moscow.
China and Tajikistan pledged in May to boost bilateral cooperation as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with President Rahmon in Dushanbe, following up on Rahmon's to China visit a year earlier.
China has pledged billions of dollars to megaprojects in some of Central Asia's poorest areas, including a major China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) highway that is among Beijing's most ambitious there.
SEE ALSO: Chinese Megaprojects Back In Fashion In Central Asia's Poorest StatesA Chinese company is also said to have committed itself to a major solar power plant in Tajikistan, near that country's border with Afghanistan.
China has already invested major sums in power and other infrastructure projects in Tajikistan just as Dushanbe's debt payments are on the rise to China's Exim Bank.
The SCO's membership also includes India, Iran, and Pakistan.