US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is visiting the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan amid ongoing tensions over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Blinken held talks with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym Jomard Togayev and the country’s Foreign Minister Mukhtar Diloboti on Tuesday.
This is his first visit to Central Asia as US Secretary of State.
Blinken will also participate in the ‘C5+1’ meeting of the former Soviet republics Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan along with the United States during this trip.
In this meeting, he is going to emphasize on the freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Central Asian countries, according to the statement released by the US State Department.
Following his visit to Kazakhstan, Blinken will travel to Tajikistan later this week.
Blinken made the trip on the recent one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
These 5 countries are considered to be Russia’s most influential. However, these countries did not openly support Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
UN for the Ukraine problem. Kazim Jomart, the president of Kazakhstan, has been insisting that a diplomatic solution should be found under the Charter and widely accepted international law.
UN passes resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine The above 5 countries boycotted last week’s vote in the General Assembly. India also abstained from voting.
US State Department officials said Blinken will make it clear to those countries that Russia’s war on Ukraine is a major threat to Central Asian countries as well.
For decades, the United States has been trying to woo Central Asian countries away from Russia’s influence. Those efforts did not meet with much success. However, the US war in Afghanistan got some benefits like Uzbekistan and Tajikistan helped logistically.