China’s president was scheduled to meet his counterpart from Belarus at a leaders’ summit in Central Asia on Thursday, state media reported, as Xi Jinping makes his first overseas visit since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“On the afternoon of the 15th, local time, President Xi Jinping will meet with Belarusian President (Alexander) Lukashenko in Samarkand” in Uzbekistan, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Xi earlier met with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Belarus has been hit with a wave of sanctions by the West both for its support for Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine and also for a ferocious post-election crackdown in 2020.
