Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Central Asia hoping that greater US engagement will reassure former Soviet republics rattled by the Ukraine war, although Russia\u2019s historic clout limits the extent of cooperation.
\nDays after the anniversary of the Ukraine invasion, the top US diplomat will hold talks on Tuesday in Kazakhstan and then Uzbekistan and meet jointly with foreign ministers of all five ex-Soviet Central Asian states in Kazakhstan\u2019s capital Astana.
\nDonald Lu, the top US diplomat for South and Central Asia, said the United States was realistic that the five nations were not going to end their relationships with Russia or their other giant neighbour, China, which has been boosting its own presence.
\nBut he said Blinken would show that the United States is a \u201creliable partner\u201d and different from Moscow and Beijing.
\n\u201cWe have something to offer in terms of engagement economically, but we also have something to offer in terms of the values that we bring to the table,\u201d Lu told reporters.
\nAfter a year of travelling the world to rally support for Ukraine, Blinken\u2019s mission may be his most subtle yet.
\nDiplomats and experts say that Central Asian leaders are walking a tightrope due to formal security agreements with Moscow and Russia\u2019s overwhelming security and economic influence, including as a destination for labourers.
\nAll five abstained or did not vote as the UN General Assembly on Thursday demanded that Russian forces leave Ukraine.
\nFor the United States, \u201cthe sky is the limit in Central Asia right now\u201d, said Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, an expert on the region at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the University of Pittsburgh.
\n\u201cThere is a real desire among the leaders of these nations to move away from Russia. I think they realize that Russia is a threat to them, but by geography, there\u2019s very little they can do about it, and their economic situation doesn\u2019t give them a lot of options,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cSo I think there\u2019s a real opportunity for the United States to be creative, to engage with the leaders of these countries and sort of meet them where they are.\u201d –
\nComplex stance
\nKazakhstan, with which Russia has its longest land border, has among the most complex relationships with Moscow. It has been mindful of the rights of its sizable ethnic Russian minority \u2014 even more so after President Vladimir Putin pointed to Ukraine\u2019s treatment of Russian speakers in justifying his invasion.
\nKazakhstan\u2019s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who will meet Blinken, last year travelled to see Putin and reaffirmed their partnership with Russia.
\nBut he recently spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and urged a negotiated end to the conflict based on international law, and Kazakhstan has welcomed tens of thousands of Russians fleeing conscription.
\nThe month before the Ukraine invasion, Tokayev had called in Russian-led forces to help regain control after riots but he quickly asked them to leave following public opposition.
\nTajikistan\u2019s President Emomali Rahmon made waves in October when a video went viral of him giving Putin a rare public scolding at a regional meeting, accusing Russia of ignoring the interests of the Central Asian countries.
\nThe United States has seen glimmers of hope for human rights, a longstanding concern in a region historically run by authoritarians.
\nLu pointed to the recent conviction in Kazakhstan of police officers accused of torture during last year\u2019s unrest, as well as Uzbekistan\u2019s rapid abolition of forced and child labour in cotton harvests.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s really quite remarkable. I don\u2019t know that we have seen that sort of speedy progress paralleled anywhere else in the world,\u201d Lu said.
\nTreated as \u2018backwater\u2019?
\nThe Ukraine war is not the first time that an international crisis has thrown a greater spotlight on Central Asia.
\nUzbekistan initially took a leading role in supporting the US military in its war in Afghanistan, which President Joe Biden ended in 2021.
\nThe last secretary of state to visit, Mike Pompeo, in 2020 pushed Central Asians to curb ties with Beijing as he highlighted human rights concerns in Beijing\u2019s adjacent Xinjiang region.
\nMurtazashvili said the United States had made the mistake of seeing Central Asia as a \u201cbackwater\u201d linked to other policies and would do better with a strategy that values regional leaders\u2019 autonomy.
\n\u201cThese countries are actually in a really interesting position to balance Russia and China off against one another, and many of them have done this pretty skillfully,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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