What to expect from Blinken’s visit to Kazakhstan this week and C5+1 ministerial meeting
Besides meeting with top Kazakh officials, Blinken will take part in a C5+1 ministerial meeting, according to the U.S. Department of State statement, to «reaffirm the United States’ commitment to the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Central Asian countries and to collaborate with the region on solutions to shared global challenges.»
Though it will be Blinken’s first visit to the region, it will be the fourth time he meets with Central Asian foreign ministers in a C5+1 format.
Photo: reuters.com
Central Asia has been a region of growing importance to U.S. foreign strategy in recent years, primarily due to its strategic location, vast energy resources, and potential to serve as a transit route for trade and commerce between Europe and Asia.
«Since the previous United States Strategy for Central Asia was approved in 2015, new leaders in the region have created new openings for reform-oriented development, intraregional connectivity and cooperation, and greater U.S. engagement. Specifically, new governments in the region have indicated a deeper commitment to pursue political and economic reform, including through bilateral cooperation with the US,» reads a US Strategy for Central Asia for 2019-2025.
What is the C5+1 format?
The C5+1 initiative was convened in Washington in 2015 with the goal of enhancing cooperation between Central Asian countries and the US. To date, there have been fourteen meetings at the level of foreign ministers.
The latest took place in New York in September on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly that, among other things, announced the establishment of the C5+1 secretariat to deepen engagement and establish formal procedures aimed at identifying and advancing shared priorities and coordinating the work between participating governments.
Since its inception in 2015, C5+1 engagement has included not only ministerial meetings but also expert meetings and thematic working groups on such themes, as economy, energy and environment, and security.
C5+1 projects across Central Asia received over $34 million from the US in the areas of security, economic connectivity, and the environment.
The US is not the first country that sought to boost cooperation with the region in this format. Japan has done so, initiating a C5+1 mechanism in 2004; European Union and Russia have also developed such a mechanism of cooperation with the region.
C5+1 meeting this week in Astana
The ministerial meeting is expected to focus on economic, energy and environmental, and security issues. In particular, the discussions will center around the expansion of trade, development of transport routes, new technologies in water management, food security and empowerment of women and girls.
Countering terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, and human trafficking, as well as climate change and improvement of energy efficiency, will also be on the agenda.
«Our main goal is to show that the US is a reliable partner, and we see the difficulties that these economies are facing – high food prices, high fuel prices, high unemployment, difficulty in exporting their goods, slow post-COVID recovery, and a large influx of migrants from Russia – that we see these difficulties and that we are working to support people in the region,» said Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu at a special briefing in Washington D.C.
Photo Credit: State Department photo by Freddie Everett/ Public Domain
According to Lu, who visited Kazakhstan in May and November 2022, the US has committed $41.5 million in new assistance in 2023 to Central Asia to «support food security, help countries explore new export routes, retrain their workforce, reduce unemployment, and to spur private sector growth.»
«I think you will see, when the Secretary is out in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, additional announcements of our deepened engagement in that region. So, I hope by the end of this visit, you will be convinced that we are very serious about engaging the five Central Asian states,» said Lu.
Blinken is also expected to meet separately on the margins of the C5+1 ministerial meeting with senior government officials from the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
Strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and US
The US is an important partner for Kazakhstan and was the first country to recognize Kazakhstan’s independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
In the years since Kazakhstan’s independence, the two countries have collaborated in various areas, including political, economic, and security cooperation. The bilateral cooperation has evolved into an enhanced strategic partnership characterized by multifaceted interaction across the entire spectrum of bilateral relations.
The US has welcomed on multiple occasions the ongoing program of reforms spearheaded by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
A High-Level Dialogue on Democratic Reforms was launched in Astana in April 2022, resulting in an agreement to provide U.S. technical assistance to the implementation of Kazakhstan’s reforms.
Its second meeting took place on January 24, 2023, during which the U.S. Department of State expressed its willingness to continue to support the implementation of the rule of law, justice, and other policy reforms of President Tokayev.
Photo: gov.kz
«In Kazakhstan, specifically, we have been committed for the support of reforms set out by President Tokayev and full implementation of those reforms – to include the ending of torture in prisons, in places of detention. And we have encouraged the government to hold perpetrators of torture accountable,» said Assistant Secretary Lu. «So, plenty of more work to do in Central Asia broadly and in Kazakhstan, but we see some reason to be hopeful that we are seeing that some individuals are being held accountable for torture.»
Photo: gov.kz
Trade and investment have also been important areas of cooperation between the two countries. The US has been a major trading partner for Kazakhstan, importing, primarily, oil and gas and exporting machinery, vehicles, and aircraft to the country.
Bilateral trade increased by 37.2 percent in 2022, reaching $3.05 billion compared to the same period last year.
Photo:t.me/aqorda_resmi
Over the years of independence, direct investments from the US exceeded $62 billion, the second largest foreign investor in Kazakhstan after the Netherlands. In the first nine months of 2022, American investments surged by 58.8 percent to over $5 billion.
Photo:t.me/aqorda_resmi
Nearly 590 enterprises with the participation of American capital work in Kazakhstan, with American companies continuing to show interest in the Kazakh market.
Overall, the Kazakh-American strategic partnership has been a mutually beneficial collaboration that has helped to promote economic development, security, and stability in the region. As global challenges continue to emerge, the partnership between the two countries is likely to become increasingly important in the years to come.
After Kazakhstan, Blinken will then travel to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. On March 1, he will travel to New Delhi to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, where discussions are expected to focus on multilateralism and deepening cooperation on food and energy security, sustainable development, counter-narcotics, global health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Photo: Jes Aznar / Getty Images
Written by Assel Satubaldina.