Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend a welcome ceremony held by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday.
Xi arrived in Astana on Tuesday noon to attend the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and pay a state visit to Kazakhstan.
The SCO summit will be held in Astana on July 3-4, and China will take over the SCO rotating chair after the summit.
Xi is on the state visit to Kazakhstan at the invitation of President Tokayev.
This is President Xi's fifth visit to Kazakhstan. During the visit, Xi will have talks with President Tokayev and have an in-depth exchange of views with him on bilateral relations, cooperation in key areas, and the regional and international landscape.
Xi's state visit to Kazakhstan is the first leg of his tour from Tuesday to Saturday, and he will also pay a state visit to Tajikistan at the invitation of President Emomali Rahmon.
Xi to attend welcome ceremony held by Kazakh President Tokayev
The China-Laos Railway, which launched its international passenger service on April 13, 2023, has handled over 222,000 cross-border passenger trips as of Friday, said the Mohan border checkpoint in southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Over 1,000 international passenger trains running on the China-Laos Railway have served travelers from 96 countries and regions since the service was launched, according to Mohan's entry-exit border inspection station on the China-Laos border and local railway authorities.
Since the launch of its cross-border passenger service, the railway has become the preferred mode of transport for a growing number of international travelers due to its affordability, convenience and comfort.
The China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, began operation in December 2021. The 1,035-km railway connects Kunming in China with Vientiane in Laos.
To streamline customs clearance procedures, the local border inspection department has equipped its personnel with intelligent language translation devices, which can translate more than 70 languages from around the world in real time, greatly facilitating the communication between its staff and foreign passengers.
Currently, the customs clearance time of China-Laos railway international passenger trains has been shortened from the initial three hours to two hours.
The railway project is actually a section of the Kunming-Singapore Railway Project, which connects Kunming with Singapore, passing through Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia.
China-Laos Railway records over 222,000 cross-border passengers
