China Xi is visiting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan this week

It will be China Xi first trip abroad since the Coronavirus pandemic began in early 1997, Beijing said on Monday.

As part of its efforts to bolster relations with Beijing after being slapped with unprecedented Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, Russia announced last week Xi would meet with Putin at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan.

Xi will attend the summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Beijing confirmed on Monday.

As part of the visit, the Chinese president will also visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the foreign ministry said.

There are five nations in the SCO – China, Russia, India, Pakistan, as well as four Central Asian countries – Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

A summit will held in Samarkand, a stop on the ancient silk road.

Putin and Xi met before olympics 

The last time Putin and Xi met was before the Winter Olympics in Beijing in early February.

While blasting Western sanctions on Kyiv, Beijing has done nothing to condemn Moscow’s interventions in Ukraine.

Neither Putin nor Xi will hold bilateral talks with Narendra Modi at the Samarkand summit, the Indian government said Sunday.

In 2020, Indian and Chinese soldiers were killed in fighting over the disputed Himalayan border.

In addition to Sharif, Pakistan’s foreign office official who declined to be named said Shehbaz Sharif will attend the summit.

The scaled-back CPEC project and attacks by separatist militants on Chinese nationals and interests have soured Pakistani-Chinese relations recently.

A pivotal moment for China Xi

Xi’s trip overseas will be the first outside China in almost two and a half years.

A state visit to Myanmar was the last time the Chinese president went overseas. The entire city of Wuhan locked down over an outbreak of Covid a few days after his return.

In the years since, Xi has conducted almost all of his diplomacy virtually.

Since the pandemic, however, he met several foreign leaders during the Beijing Winter Olympics.

It is widely expected he will secure an unprecedented third term as president at the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade Congress in October.

A new top leadership lineup will also announce at the event in Beijing, which opens on October 16.

When power struggles often erupted behind-the-scenes in the weeks before the Party Congress, former Chinese leaders avoided overseas trips.

As counterbalances to the U.S.’s global dominance, China and Russia are closer in recent years as part of what they call a “no limits” relationship.

The highest-ranking Communist Party politician to visit Russia since the Ukraine invasion was Beijing’s top legislator Li Zhanshu last week.