A few hours before the meeting of Belarusian leader and close friend of Putin Alexander Lukashenko with US Secretary of State Xi Jinping in Beijing Anthony Blinken went to Central Asia, or rather to Kazakhstan (Astana) and Uzbekistan (Tashkent).
During his stay in Astana, the head of the State Department had contacts with the foreign ministers of five former Soviet republics (C5): Kazakhstanfrom Uzbekistanher Kyrgyzstan/Kyrgyzstanfrom Tajikistan and his Turkmenistan.
During his visit, Blinken announced new funding of Rs. $25 million support economic development in the region, in addition to $25 million that the Biden administration has already pledged to the same end.
Blinken wants to send signals of American solidarity to Russia’s neighbors to ensure those countries’ trade routes are not used to circumvent sanctions imposed on Russian interests over the war in Ukraine, he notes in an analysis by the Gzero website, while Reuters also sees an attempt to deepen US involvement in the Central Asian region against the backdrop of the Ukrainian one.
Please note that countries such as Kazakhstan and leaders such as Kazakh President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev have taken an openly anti-Moscow stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to Reuters, Gzero
Source: Kathimerini
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