Priorities. The Xi-man is not playing around.
From XeroHedge:
In his first overseas trip since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit the country responsible for roughly half of the world's uranium production.
On September 14, Xi will visit Kazakhstan, the SCMP reported citing a Monday announcement at a briefing by the Kazakh foreign ministry. It follows months of speculation about the location of Xi’s first trip abroad since he went to Myanmar in January 2020. Beijing’s strict zero-Covid policy has curtailed travel inside and out of the country, and Xi and other senior figures have not left China since the start of the pandemic.
Of the 25 Politburo members, only foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi has travelled abroad. Meanwhile, the country’s No 3 official, Li Zhanshu, will go to Russia on Wednesday in a sign that China’s top officials are resuming international travel. Li, head of the legislature, will also visit Mongolia, Nepal and South Korea.
As reported previously, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has said Xi will visit Bali for the Group of 20 summit in November - where Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy will also be present.
Xi will meet Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for talks the host government said were “aimed at further deepening the eternal comprehensive strategic partnership and developing political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation”.
The visit could be followed by a trip to Uzbekistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, according to the SCO’s official Telegram channel. In a post on Sunday, the SCO said that “the leaders of all states confirmed their full-time participation in the summit” in Samarkand, to be held on September 15 and 16.
More importantly, in Uzbekistan, Xi would be expected to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the first time since the pair announced a “no limits” partnership on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Just three weeks later, Russian forces invaded Ukraine, leading to much speculation about how much Xi and other Chinese leaders knew about the operation in advance.
The pair have been in telephone contact since – notably on Xi’s 69th birthday on June 15. At the time, Chinese state media quoted Xi as saying that “China is willing to continue to support the Russian side on issues related to core interests and major concerns such as sovereignty and security, to work closely on strategic cooperation between the two countries”.
Russia is one of eight member states of the SCO, along with China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. There are four observer states in the process of acceding to the forum – Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia – while Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Türkiye are dialogue partners.....
....MUCH MORE
There is another smaller group whose membership overlaps with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation:
Get To Know The Eurasian Economic Union
Membership in the EAEU was the overt reason Russia moved to help Kazakhstan put down the coup attempt in early January. It seems so long ago but it's been less than 80 days.
Well the EAEU and the fact Kazakhstan is the world's largest uranium producer, with output larger than the next four biggest - combined.
And the fact that, as seen in 2014's "Market Differentiation: "Kazakh leader may drop the 'stan' in Kazakhstan"" it is located in a very interesting neighborhood:
One of these is not like the others:
That post was followed, in May 2014, after the coup in Ukraine, by:
"Getting the Band Back Together: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan to Formalize Trade Bloc (Kyrgyzstan, Armenia hope to join by year end)"And then in October 2014 by: "Back In the U.S.S.R: Russia Completes Ratification of Eurasian Economic Union".
Why all this history? So that when the talk at next week's salon turns to Eurasia our readers can say: I was just reading about that in "Meanwhile In Kazakhstan: "EAEU and China will develop a draft international financial system" (March 14) or these two from Russia Briefing:
March 23
Kazakhstan-Eurasian Economic Union Trade Up 29% In January
Kazakhstan’s bilateral trade with other member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) – Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia reached US$1.7 billion in January 2022, which is 29% higher than the same period last year, according to Kazakhstan’s Statistics Committee.....MUCH MOREAnd March 22: "Russia And Iran To Begin Banking & Finance Cooperation"
And then, visualizing the map, think about all the countries we've been posting on this month, Russia, China, India, Afghanistan, Iran and all the rest and maybe say to ones self:
"What the hell is going on?"
Unfortunately, when the U.S. does Kazakhstan it seems to be for personal gain:
