ASTANA, Kazakhstan听–听US Secretary of State Antony听叠濒颈苍办别苍听arrived in听颁别苍迟谤补濒听Asia Tuesday where he will visit and meet with officials from all five former Soviet republics following the first听补苍苍颈惫别谤蝉补谤测听of Russia’s invasion of听鲍办谤补颈苍别.
Mr. Blinken‘s visit to the capitals of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is his first to the region as the Biden administration’s top diplomat.
The trip comes just days after the Feb. 24听补苍苍颈惫别谤蝉补谤测听of the invasion of听鲍办谤补颈苍别, which has tested Moscow’s influence in a region that also includes Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Leaders in the region have been聽 by their new-found leverage as Moscow looks to their markets and trade routes in a bid to circumvent Western sanctions.
In Astana, Mr. Blinken聽will with meet with the five听苍补迟颈辞苍蝉‘ foreign ministers individually and as a group, in what officials say is an effort to set out the benefits of US cooperation to a region facing economic fallout from the conflict to the west.
“Our main goal is to show that the United States is a reliable partner, and we see the difficulties that these economies are facing 鈥 high food prices, high fuel prices, high unemployment, difficulty in exporting their goods, slow post-COVID recovery, and a large influx of migrants from Russia,” Donald Lu, the State Department’s top official for South and听颁别苍迟谤补濒听Asia, told reporters ahead of the trip.
Mr. Blinken聽will also meet Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who was re-elected in a landslide in November and聽聽against territorial claims made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in听鲍办谤补颈苍别.
Russia and Kazakhstan share the world’s longest continuous land border, prompting concern among some Kazakhs about the security of a country with the second-biggest ethnic Russian population among ex-Soviet republics after听鲍办谤补颈苍别.
Mr. Blinken聽will travel to Uzbekistan later on Tuesday to meet with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. – Reuters
