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Pompeo, in Central Asia, Seeks to Counter China

Navbahor Imamova

   Oil, trade and good governance all figured into talks Sunday and Monday
   between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the foreign ministers
   of five Central Asian republics. But perhaps the most important country
   in the discussions was the one that wasn't there -- China.

   Pompeo, the most senior U.S. official to visit the region since
   then-Secretary of State John Kerry in 2015, was in the Uzbek capital,
   Tashkent, for a meeting of the so-called [1]C5 + 1, comprising the
   Central Asian nations and the United States.

   The State Department says the ministers discussed prospective Central
   Asian contributions to the peace process in Afghanistan in 2020, as
   well as joint border security and regional efforts to improve economic
   and energy connectivity.

References

   1. https://www.state.gov/c51-fact-sheet/

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