Xi to visit Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan this week
President Xi Jinping will visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan this week, the Foreign Ministry has announced. The visit will coincide with a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) in the Uzbek city of Sarmarkan and mark the state leader's first foreign trip since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020.  Xi will meet with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, a ministry statement said. His last trip outside of the mainland was on June 30 when he visited Hong Kong to mark the 25th anniversary of the city's return to Chinese sovereignty. In recent months, speculation has been rife over which countries Xi would visit and when such visits might take place. The SCO is a regional security bloc launched in 2001 to address radical Islam and other security concerns. The group initially consisted of China, Russia and four ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, before India and Pakistan joined in 2017. (Additional reporting from Reuters)