“We’ve had longstanding relationships with each country going back to their independence and the foundation of that relationship has been our strong support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each of the countries of Central Asia. But I think what you’ve seen in recent years is a deepening and strengthening of these relationships across a number of areas, trying to create greater economic opportunity, working together to meet shared challenges, including everything from climate to energy, building closer people-to-people ties between our countries and also working to create greater integration and connectivity among the countries of Central Asia themselves. This is one of the things that we're doing through, what we call, the C5+1 partnership. And I took part in a meeting of that group just yesterday in Kazakhstan. I think we're seeing stronger partnerships,” Blinken said.

“For the United States, our hope is to be a good partner in working on shared challenges, in bringing more investment to Central Asia, and also in helping our partners build the capacity of their own people. So we're working in all of these areas together.”

It should be noted that during a recent meeting of the C5+1 Ministerial, Blinken highlighted the importance of creating greater economic opportunities in the region.