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Mere days earlier than Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to go to Kazakhstan, a U.S. official handed via first, as soon as once more demonstrating the breadth of Kazakhstan’s partnerships and the elevated fee of diplomatic passage via Central Asia as of late.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu is touring to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and India this week. In each Central Asian states, based on a pre-trip memo, “the U.S. delegation will reaffirm america’ steadfast dedication to Kazakhstan’s and Uzbekistan’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence.”
In Astana, on November 6, Lu co-chaired the fifth Kazakhstan-U.S. Enhanced Strategic Partnership Dialogue (ESPD) with Kazakhstan’s First Deputy Overseas Minister of Overseas Affairs Kairat Umarov.
The US and Kazakhstan have engaged within the ESPD since 2018. In January of that yr, then-Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev traveled to Washington, D.C. for a gathering on the White Home with then-U.S. President Donald Trump. In December 2018 the primary ESPD was held in Astana. The ESPD consists of a intergovernmental fee with three committee centered on political cooperation and safety, commerce and financial cooperation, and the “human dimension” – a flip of phrase that applies to a spread of points typically flagged as “human rights.”
A joint assertion launched on November 7 after the most recent EPSD highlighted in broad phrases the annual assembly’s content material. The profitable C5+1 Presidential Summit held on the sidelines of the U.N. Basic Meeting in September was famous by each side, with america characterizing the format as “an essential software to deal with challenges collectively and to create a extra affluent and safe Central Asia.”
Beneath the umbrella of political and safety points, the assertion famous dialogue of “regional geopolitical matters, counterterrorism, regulation enforcement cooperation, countering the artificial medicine menace, and … non-proliferation.”
These are obscure and par for the course. Ukraine was not talked about particularly within the assertion, nevertheless it’s arduous to think about that wasn’t among the many “regional geopolitical matters.”
Throughout the realm of economics, the assertion talked about priorities of “facilitating and diversifying commerce and funding, cooperating to broaden clear power deployment and combatting the local weather disaster, vital minerals and geology partnership, in addition to science and know-how cooperation.” The Biden administration’s Partnership for World Infrastructure and Funding (PGI) was talked about as a “potential avenue” to deal with the purpose of enabling “sustainable improvement of transport rotes.”
Right here, once more, specifics weren’t supplied however doubtless touched on the Trans-Caspian Route, additionally referred to as the Center Hall, which envisions boosting commerce from Central Asia, Kazakhstan specifically, through the Caspian, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and on to Europe. Earlier this yr, an EU examine recognized the Center Hall as offering the “most sustainable transport connections between Europe and Central Asia.”
Lastly, inside the “human dimension” the 2 sides “highlighted political reforms, good governance, rule of regulation, and continued schooling change packages.” Discussions, per the assertion, touched on a spread of points from selling media freedom and fostering “a resilient civil society” to much less delicate however however essential points like the protective the rights of individuals with disabilities and combatting human trafficking.
The following ESPD is ready to be held in Washington in 2024.
Lu’s subsequent stops embrace Uzbekistan and India. In Uzbekistan, he’ll co-chair one other partnership dialogue, the U.S.-Uzbekistan Strategic Partnership Dialogue (SPD). Lu met on November 7, after arriving in Tashkent, with Saida Mirziyoyeva – assistant to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, and likewise his daughter.
In India, Lu will take part within the U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue, the place the U.S. secretaries of state and protection, Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, will meet with their Indian counterparts.
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