Chinese president arrives in Astana for Kazakhstan visit

ASTANA, Sept. 6 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived here Friday for a state visit to Kazakhstan after attending a Group of 20 (G20) summit in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

During the visit, Xi is scheduled to hold talks with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev, witness the signing of a series of cooperation documents and attend a meeting of the two countries' entrepreneurs.

He is also expected to deliver a speech at the Nazarbayev University, expounding China's foreign policy toward Central Asia.

China-Kazakhstan relations have enjoyed rapid development since they established diplomatic ties 21 years ago, and the two countries have forged a comprehensive strategic partnership.

China and Kazakhstan have seen frequent high-level exchanges and ever-deepening mutual trust.

They have achieved fruitful results in economy and trade cooperation, with two-way trade surging to 13.57 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2013, up 23.1 percent year-on-year.

China is now the largest trading partner of Kazakhstan, and Kazakhstan is China's second largest trading partner in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region after Russia.

Kazakh Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov said when meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in August that Kazakhstan is ready to work with the Chinese side to lift their comprehensive strategic partnership to a new high.

After his Kazakhstan trip, Xi is also scheduled to pay state visits to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Before the G20 summit, he visited Turkmenistan.

The Chinese president will attend the 13th meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kyrgyzstan.