Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to make rare state visits to Egypt and, likely India, before his expected trip to the U.S. in late September.
Xi has "sharply curtailed foreign travel in recent years, so his busy upcoming travel schedule is a significant gauge of his priorities," Gabriel Wildau, managing director at Teneo, told CNBC in an email.
The Chinese leader this year has so far only ventured abroad once: a state visit in June to North Korea for the first time in seven years. Meanwhile. the world has come to China, with more than 20 leaders — including U.S. President Donald Trump — visiting Beijing in the first half of the year, pointed out U.S.-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The global stakes have only risen, with the Iran war, U.S.-China trade tensions and growing security risks from artificial intelligence. For Beijing, that's building the case for an evolution in its global role.
"It's time for China to probably take bigger responsibility, provide more global public goods," said Hai Zhao, a director of international political studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state-affiliated think tank.
"Because of China's deep integration into the global economy, China is an integral part of the solution," he said, whether it's supply chain security, oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz or cybersecurity.
Xi landed in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Sunday. The country is hosting the security-focused Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit Monday and Tuesday. The annual event gathers the heads of Russia, India and other non-Western nations.
As part of the same trip, which runs through Thursday, Xi plans to make his first state visit to Egypt in a decade. China has built up its presence in the Suez Canal region with a bilateral economic and trade cooperation zone.
Xi is then expected to attend another non-Western leaders' summit, BRICS, which will be held in New Delhi from Sept. 12 to Sept.13. China has yet to confirm Xi's participation. It would be Xi's first visit to India since 2019 and after the deadly border clashes between the two countries in 2020.
Experts said the U.S. will be monitoring developments at the SCO and BRICS summits, as it looks to improve ties with India and China but plans to get tougher on Russia to bring an end to Moscow's war with Ukraine.
Last year, as the U.S. imposed tariffs against Beijing and New Delhi, a clip of Xi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin laughing together at the SCO summit in Tianjin went viral.
The meeting drew the ire of Washington, with Trump claiming that it had "lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China."
A lot has changed since. In February this year, Trump announced that he would scale back the tariffs on India to 18% from 50%, and the two countries are in the process of negotiating a trade deal. Trump also made a landmark visit to China earlier this year, and Xi is expected to visit Washington in September, after the BRICS summit.
But India and China still face threats of up to 100% tariffs from Washington if the U.S. House passes the Graham bill, which punishes countries buying Russian oil. More than 50% of India's crude supplies originated from Russia in June and July, and were around 43% as of last week, according to Kpler data.
"Visible warmth" between Modi and Putin "could shape the President's [Trump] calculations over using potential new secondary tariff authorities," over India's purchases of Russian oil, Richard M. Rossow, senior advisor and chair on India and Emerging Asia Economics at CSIS, told CNBC.
