BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 24. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will take part in the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Central Asian countries in Kazakhstan's Astana, Trend reports via the State Department.
"He will participate in a C5+1 Ministerial with representatives of each of the five Central Asian states, 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," the department said.
On the margins of the C5+1, Blinken will meet separately with senior government officials from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, to discuss opportunities for bilateral and multilateral cooperation and to advance our common goal of a prosperous, secure and democratic region. He will then travel to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to meet with Uzbek officials to further advance our partnership on a number of bilateral and regional issues.
Meanwhile, C5+1 is a dialogue format created to address common issues of cooperation between the Central Asian states and the US.