October 28, 2015

Kerry to start Central Asia tour on Friday

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Wednesday 28 Oct 2015 - 11:40 Makkah mean time-15-1-1437

Washington (IINA) – US Secretary of State John Kerry is to visit all five republics in Central Asia for the first time, his office said Tuesday.
After talks on the crisis in Syria in Austria on Friday, Kerry will fly to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and will return to US on November 3, AFP reported.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said this would be "the first ever visit by a US secretary of state to all five central Asian republics in the same trip."
In the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, Kerry will witness the opening of a new chancery at the US embassy and a new campus of the American University of Central Asia.
The main political day of the trip will be in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, where Kerry will meet his counterparts from all five former Soviet republics.
Kirby said this new diplomatic format would be known as the "C5+1" and "allow the secretary and ministers to discuss regional and global opportunities as well as challenges."
In Astana, Kerry will hold the fourth meeting of a US-Kazakhstan strategic dialogue and deliver a speech on Central Asia's role in the world, and in Ashgabat and Dushanbe, he will meet senior officials.
AB/IINA

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