Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s visit to Uzbekistan and his meeting with the foreign ministers of Central Asian countries, while warning of the negative consequences of growing Russian and Chinese influence in the region.<\/p>\n
Khalilzad said Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to restore his country\u2019s former empire and that, although Ukraine is the main target, Central Asian countries are also among Moscow\u2019s targets. He also claimed that China is seeking regional hegemony in Central Asia, and that the dominance of the two countries in the region would harm U.S. interests and national security.<\/p>\n
The former diplomat added that Central Asia has become increasingly important economically, and the U.S. private sector has recognised this. He noted that Washington\u2019s regional partners in the Gulf and South Asia share a similar view, creating opportunities for joint cooperation. Khalilzad stressed that pursuing these interests must continue as part of a sustained and active U.S. strategy.<\/p>\n
Marco Rubio\u2019s trip to Samarkand, which included a foreign ministers\u2019 meeting in the C5+1 format and the company of a large business delegation of more than 200 American companies, reflects Washington\u2019s efforts to expand economic ties and sign strategic agreements. Key parts of the visit included investment in critical mineral resources and Uzbekistan\u2019s accession to the Artemis space treaty.<\/p>\n
Experts believe that an active U.S. presence in Central Asia, alongside the historic contest for influence with Russia and China\u2019s economic expansion, will have broad geopolitical and security consequences for the region and neighbouring countries, including Afghanistan. These moves also indicate Washington\u2019s efforts to curb Moscow and Beijing\u2019s influence in Afghanistan\u2019s northern neighbourhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Khalilzad warns that rising Russian and Chinese influence in Central Asia could harm U.S. interests and regional security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}