World Blinken holds talks with Central Asian nations as tensions soar over Ukraine war U. S. officials say the Biden administration has stepped up engagement with the region in an effort to demonstrate the benefits of U. S. cooperation to a region facing economic fallout from the conflict to the west. FP Staff February 28, 2023 12:37:54 IST U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at Ak Orda Presidential Palace in Astana, Kazakhstan on Tuesday. Photo- AP Astana (Kazakhstan): U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kazakhstan on Tuesday for a series of meetings with top diplomats of Central Asian nations as tensions soar over Russia’s war in Ukraine. Blinken’s visit to the capitals of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is his first to the region as the Biden administration’s top diplomat. A meeting of the so-called C5+1 group made up of the U. S. and the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, was expected to follow. At that meeting, Blinken will stress the U. S. “commitment to the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Central Asian countries,” the State Department said in a statement that mirrors the wording it has been using to support Ukraine in its war against Russia. Leaders in the region have been emboldened to stand up to Russia by their new-found leverage as Moscow looks to their markets and trade routes in a bid to circumvent Western sanctions. U. S. officials say the Biden administration has stepped up engagement with the region in an effort to demonstrate the benefits of U. S. cooperation to a region facing economic fallout from the conflict to the west. In Astana on Tuesday, Blinken told Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi that Washington supports the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Kazakhstan, which won independence from Moscow in 1991. “Sometimes we just say those words, but they actually have real meaning and of course, we know in this particular time they have even more resonance than usual,” Blinken said in reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, also a former Soviet republic. However, all five Central Asian republics, along with India, which Blinken will visit next, abstained in a vote to condemn the invasion last week at the U. N. General Assembly on the first anniversary of the war. U. S. officials hope that Blinken can convince the Central Asians that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a threat to them. Russia and Kazakhstan share the world’s longest continuous land border, prompting concern among some Kazakhs about the security of a country with the second-biggest ethnic Russian population among ex-Soviet republics after Ukraine. With inputs from agencies. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram . Updated Date: February 28, 2023 12:41:29 IST TAGS: Antony Blinken Russia-ukraine Conflict Ukraine War.