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, RFE/RL reported.
“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 the President 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.
The SCO’s membership also includes India, Iran, and Pakistan.
China and Tajikistan pledged in May to boost bilateral cooperation as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with President Rahmon in Dushanbe.
A 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.
