By Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will tout the benefits of cooperation for Central Asian nations with deep ties to Washington’s adversaries Russia and China during a visit next week, the top State Department official for the region said on Friday.
Blinken will travel to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and meet with counterparts from all five Central Asian countries that used to be ruled from Moscow and have strong trade links with Beijing, ahead of a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in New Delhi on Wednesday.
In Central Asia, Blinken will “be looking to draw a line under how our engagement is different from the engagement of Moscow and Beijing,” said Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs.
“We 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,” Lu told reporters on a phone call previewing the trip.
The United States is engaged in continuous diplomatic activity to rally the world to oppose Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began a year ago.
The conflict has roiled Moscow’s relations with Central Asia’s five former Soviet republics, who have been emboldened to stand up to Russia by their new-found leverage as it looks to their markets and trade routes in a bid to circumvent Western sanctions.
All three countries Blinken will visit abstained from a U.N. vote on Thursday demanding that Russian forces leave Ukrainian territory, although Blinken said this week India is among countries with historic ties to Moscow that are on a trajectory away from Russia.
Lu said South Asia and India’s “long, complex relations with Russia” were not going to end any time soon.
“But we are talking to them about the role that they can play in this conflict,” he said, adding those nations had provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the invasion.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis and Ismail Shakil; editing by Grant McCool)
