NUR-SULTAN - Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Kazakhstan on Sept.14 on his first foreign trip since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Xi will meet Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and sign a number of bilateral documents, ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov told a briefing.

Kazakhstan has close ties with China, supplying minerals, metals and energy to its eastern neighbour and transhipping goods between China and Europe. The Beijing government has not yet confirmed the Kazakhstan visit.

(Reporting by Tamara Vaal, Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Jon Boyle)