China's Xi arrives in Kazakhstan on first foreign trip since pandemic

BEIJING (Reuters) -China's President Xi Jinping arrived in Kazakhstan for a state visit on Wednesday, Chinese state media reported.

It is Xi's first trip to a foreign nation since China all but shut its borders due to COVID-19.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's office showed him greeting Xi at the airport, both leaders wearing white face masks.

Xi is expected in neighbouring Uzbekistan later on Wednesday where he will take part in a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional security body, and meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others.

(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Additional reporting by Olzhas Auyezov in Almaty; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Tomasz Janowski)