Chinese president to visit central Asian nations

Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay state visits to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan from Sept. 3 to 13, a Foreign Ministry spokesman announced on Monday. Xi will visit at the invitation of Turkmenian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev, spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement. Xi will attend the eighth Leaders' Summit of the Group of Twenty (G20) to be held in St. Petersburg from Sept. 5 to 6. He will attend at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, said Qin. The G20, established in September 1999, brings together 20 major economies of the world, including 19 countries and the European Union. Xi will also attend the 13th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, on Sept. 13, at the invitation of Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev, Qin said. Founded in June 2001, the SCO's member states consist of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.