Baku, Azerbaijan, July 23
Trend:
The capital of Uzbekistan will host today a regular meeting of the Working group on security in the format of C5+1 (Central Asia and the United States), "Podrobno.uz" reported.
A regular meeting of the Working group on security in the Central Asian countries – US cooperation format (C5+1) will be held in Tashkent on July 23.
"Representatives of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the United States will discuss topical issues of regional security, the fight against terrorism and countering violent extremism," the press service of the foreign Ministry stated.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Washington could abuse the partnership in the C5+1 format.
"We have nothing against our Central Asian neighbors having the widest possible range of external partners. We proceed from the assumption that, the obligations that exist between us will be fully respected despite these relations. However, we are hearing about the desire of the US to abuse this format and to promote ideas that are relevant to what was called the project of Greater Central Asia under the previous administrations," Lavrov said.
The official noted that, the essence of this project was to turn around to the south all projects involving the Central Asian countries in order to exclude the participation of the Russian Federation in those projects.
"I am sure that if this is the case and if such plans are to be promoted by our American colleagues at meetings with Central Asian friends, they will all see the inferiority of such attempts, which are actually dictated not by the interests of economic development, but by pure geopolitics," Lavrov said.
Central Asian countries and the United States established the C5+1 cooperation format in 2015 to discuss regional issues.