US Secretary of State Tours Central Asia

But the landlocked Central Asian republics, long isolated by their secretive governments, are once again attracting diplomatic attention. We talked about the five-year prospect of Tajikistan being able to supply all of the energy of Afghanistan as well as its own people.

But diplomats and expert observers are adamant this is no return to the days of the Great Game.

A USA official said Kerry’s aides raised with Uzbekistan’s foreign minister a few specific cases of political prisoners. Rights groups list it among the world’s most repressive and isolated countries, sometimes drawing comparisons to North Korea.

In a letter to Kerry ahead of his trip, Sen.

This program plans to expand exports in the priority sectors of horticulture and transport/logistics in Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan with outreach to businesses and trade authorities in foreign markets including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

No one else mentioned human rights or democracy, but Kerry said economic projects are “closely related to the quality of governance and the strength of democratic institutions”.

Standing alongside Kerry, Abdyldaev thanked United Nations member-states for voting his country onto the HRC, saying it was “a confirmation of high appreciation by worldwide community of the positive changes taking place recently in our country on the way of constructing, building democratic, open, and inclusive society”.

“There’s this kind of Soviet system of close regulation of religious practices and that’s more likely to cause people to turn to resort to violence and rebel against the state”.

Unlike other Central Asian leaders, Berdymukhamedov snubbed the meeting of ex-Soviet presidents in Kazakhstan last month where they discussed the Afghan threat.

Rahmon, like many of his Central Asian colleagues, has been in power for a quarter of a century after inheriting a Soviet-style autocracy with a rubber stamp assembly.

Though Russian officials say they are driven only by concern about militants, not geopolitical rivalry, their heightened attention risks fuelling USA suspicions of Moscow’s intentions.

Kerry spent Monday in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan that looks like a cross between Las Vegas and Brasilia.

Nazarbayev told Kerry Kazakhstan valued its economic ties with the United States, which he said was the largest foreign investor with about 500 companies operating in the country.

“President (Barack) Obama is very appreciative of your leadership on the (nuclear) non-proliferation issue, for countering violent extremism, cooperation vis-a-vis Afghanistan and counter-Daesh (Islamic State)”, Kerry said.

In Tajikistan, another northern neighbor of Afghanistan, Kerry said the U.S.is targeting “drivers of radicalization” and training and equipping border guards to prevent extremists from penetrating the country. “I think it was a shock to everyone that he had been radicalised and recruited by ISIL”.