US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Kazakhstan at dawn today, Tuesday, on a visit aimed at strengthening the role of the United States in Central Asia, where the Russian war in Ukraine raises many concerns, during which Blinken will meet President Kassim Jomart Tokayev, before heading to Uzbekistan.
Blinken is also scheduled to meet in the Kazakh capital, Astana, with the foreign ministers of the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, in addition to Kazakhstan.
Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to tour Central Asia since President Joe Biden took office in the United States, noting that the tour comes a few days after the first anniversary of the start of the Russian war on Ukraine, which has received billions of dollars in Western support.
Central Asian countries maintain well-established security and economic relations with Russia, but unlike Belarus, they did not rally around Moscow in the war. However, the five countries abstained from voting Thursday on a United Nations General Assembly resolution for an "immediate" withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine.
Kazakhstan - which shares a 7,500 km border with Russia - has the most complex relations with Moscow.
The country takes great care of the rights of the large Russian minority, especially after Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned the defense of Russian speakers among the causes of the Ukraine war.
As for China - which the United States considers its most prominent competitor in the long term - it is also seeking to expand its sphere of influence in this neighboring region.
Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping chose to go to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on his first overseas trip since the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Central Asia, Blinken will head to New Delhi to participate in the G20 foreign ministers' meeting.
It is expected that the US minister will avoid his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, with whom he has only communicated by phone since the start of the war in Ukraine, amid Washington's questioning of Moscow's sincerity of intentions regarding a negotiated solution to the conflict.