The renewed USA focus on central Asia coincides with a chorus of warnings from Russian officials about the danger of Islamic State militants infiltrating the region from Afghanistan, accompanied by hints Moscow will respond by beefing up its military presence. “The possibility of connecting the EAEU with the new Chinese Silk Way project is now being considered”, the expert said.
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The USA continues to seek additional economic and security ties with the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, despite persistent criticism from advocates and their supporters over their respective human rights records.
US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, as part of his Central Asia official visits on Monday.
Kerry’s tour – the first-ever visit by a U.S. secretary of state to all five Central Asian countries on the same trip – will begin Saturday in Kyrgyzstan, where Washington maintained a military base for the conflict in Afghanistan until June 2014.
The leaders then headed into the city to a conference center in the sprawling grounds of the monumental presidential residence complex for closed-door talks.
Central Asia Trade Forum: The United States recently hosted the fifth Central Asia Trade Forum in Almaty bringing together more than 500 entrepreneurs, traders, businessmen and policy makers to discuss the regional trade environment and conclude trade deals. Human rights groups say forced labor remains pervasive in the country’s cotton fields and that thousands have been convicted of “extremism” in closed trials after confessions obtained through torture. Kerry is seeking to persuade governments that Washington’s interest in the region, which lies to the north of Afghanistan, is not waning.
The foreign ministers agreed to “enhance a favorable business climate in the region to attract foreign direct investment and facilitate local entrepreneurship and broaden and strengthen business and investment contacts among the Central Asian countries and the United States”.
In July, relations soured amid Kyrgyz official anger that Kerry’s State Department had awarded a prize to a human rights activist jailed by his own country.
They would also develop closer cooperation in the humanitarian sphere and more extensive people-to-people ties, and encourage wider educational, cultural, and business exchanges.
It was Kerry’s first meeting as secretary of state with Karimov, one of several former Soviet Communist Party bosses in the region whose grip on power has tightened over the years.
But he has also made it clear that Washington is ready to work more closely with Central Asian governments in the fight against extremists like the Islamic State group.
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The U.S. State Department informed that the World Bank plans to launch a new long-term climate change initiative in Central Asia, “Climate Adaptation & Mitigation Program for the Aral Sea Basin”.
