BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will pay a state visit to China from Tuesday to Thursday.
The following is a profile of Tokayev.
Tokayev was born on May 17, 1953 in the Kazakh city of Almaty, and graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1975.
He went to China for short-term training courses at the Beijing Language and Culture University during the year of 1983 and 1984.
Tokayev started to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union in 1975 and was posted to the Soviet Embassy in Singapore. He served as second secretary and first secretary when working at the Soviet Embassy in China from 1985 to 1990.
During 1992-1993, he served as deputy foreign minister and then the first deputy foreign minister of Kazakhstan. In 1994, he was appointed as Kazakhstan's minister of foreign affairs.
Tokayev became deputy prime minister in March 1999 and was appointed as Kazakhstan's prime minister in October 1999.
In January 2002, he became secretary of state as well as minister of foreign affairs. From 2003 to 2007, he was the minister of foreign affairs of Kazakhstan.
In January 2007, Tokayev was elected as chairman of the Senate, the upper house in Kazakhstan's Parliament. In March 2011, he became the United Nations deputy secretary-general as well as director-general of the UN Office at Geneva.
He was re-elected as chairman of the Senate of the Parliament in October 2013.
On March 20, 2019, he was sworn in as Kazakh president.
Tokayev can speak Russian, Chinese and English.
