Today, on February 28, Astana will host a ministerial meeting of the heads of foreign affairs agencies of the Central Asian countries and the United States in the C5 + 1 format.
The agenda includes issues of further development of regional cooperation and partnership with the United States, Vlast.kz reports.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken flew to Astana on the night of February 28 to participate in it, as well as to negotiate with the leadership of Kazakhstan. This is his first official visit to Kazakhstan.
Earlier, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Aibek Smadiyarov, said that “all the foreign ministers of the Central Asian countries confirmed their participation.”
As Asia-Plus was informed by the Tajik Foreign Ministry, the head of the country’s foreign policy department, Sirojiddin Muhriddin, will also participate in this meeting.
As part of his visit to Astana, the US Secretary of State is expected to meet with President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev and hold talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Mukhtar Tleuberdi.
In September 2022, the Foreign Ministers of the Central Asian countries and Anthony Blinken met in the C5 + 1 format in New York, as part of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.
Then the parties discussed the expansion of trade and economic ties, both between the countries of the region and with the United States.
The C5 + 1 format is a multilateral mechanism for interaction between the five countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) and the United States.
It was created in 2015 to discuss regional issues in the areas of economy, ecology and security.
source: asiaplustj
