The US Secretary of State will hold talks with a representative of the Government of Turkmenistan in Astana
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will pay visits to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and India from February 28 to March 3. This is stated in a written statement issued on Thursday by the head of the press service of the Department of State, Ned Price, reports TASS.
Blinken will take part in a ministerial meeting in Astana in the C5+1 format, which is a multilateral mechanism of interaction between five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) and the United States.
According to Price, the meeting "will be devoted to strengthening economic, energy, environmental and security cooperation" between the participating countries of the format.
Blinken, the diplomat added, will also hold talks with representatives of the governments of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, where he will discuss "the possibilities of bilateral and multilateral cooperation and the promotion of a common goal - a prosperous, secure and democratic region."
According to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, the Secretary of State will be received by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and will hold talks with Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tleuberdi. It is specified that this is the first official visit of Anthony Blinken to Kazakhstan.
Then the head of the Department of State will travel to Tashkent, where he will meet with high-ranking officials of Uzbekistan. Blinken will fly to New Delhi on March 1, and will take part in a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Group of Twenty countries. It, as Price noted, "will be devoted to strengthening a multilateral approach and deepening cooperation in the field of food and energy security, sustainable development, drug control, global health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief."
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