The next Central Asia – USA (C5+1) high-level meeting is being held today through videoconferencing, a source within the Tajik government told Asia-Plus in an interview. .
According to him, the online meeting participants will include Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan (Mukhtar Tleuberdi), Kyrgyzstan (Ruslam Kazakbayev, Tajikistan (Sirojiddin Muhriddin), Turkmenistan (Rashid Meredov), Uzbekistan (Abdulaziz Kamilov) and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
They will discuss issues related to regional economic cooperation and expansion of collaboration between Central Asia and the United States in the fields of economics, providing regional security, combating climate change and supporting the establishment of durable peace in Afghanistan.
The C5+1 is a format for dialogue and a platform for joint efforts to address common challenges faced by the United States and the five Central Asian states.
The first C5+1 ministerial meeting took place in Samarqand (Uzbekistan) in November 2015. The six foreign ministers agreed to focus on three sectors of common interest – security, economics, and environmental challenges.
Since the inception of the C5+1 dialogue, the Central Asian countries have been increasingly interested in regional approaches and view the C5+1 as a catalyst for common action.
