Prof. Chen Dongxiao, President of Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) led a group to visit Astana, capital of Kazakhstan from Aug.27 to 29, 2018. Prof. Ye Qing, Assistant President of SIIS and Prof. Qiang Xiaoyun, deputy director of center for Russian and Central Asian Studies joined the group.

The SIIS group visited Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the morning on Aug.27 and held talk on big power relations and bilateral relations. In the afternoon, SIIS group visited the Secretariat of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). President Chen signed the Protocol on Cooperation between SIIS and CICA Secretariat with Amb.Gong Jianwei, Executive Director of CICA Secretariat and then attended the opening ceremony of the Silk Road Conference Hall. Minister of Foreign Affairs Kairat Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan attended the ceremony and met with President Chen. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary, the CICA Secretariat released the Compilation of Documents and SIIS group was invited to attend the event.

The SIIS group visited Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP) at the Foundation of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and held talks on issues such as Belt and Road Initiative, financial cooperation and academic exchanges in the morning on Aug.28 and visited Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan in the afternoon.

During the visit, the SIIS group also visited Chinese Embassy and met with Minister Counsellor Jiao Huaixin and Political Counsellor Wang Tong.