Kerry to make first Central Asia visit

    US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to travel to Central Asia in shortly for bilateral and multilateral talks with his counterparts in the region.
    The State Department said on October 27 that Kerry would embark on his first visit to Central Asia after attending multilateral talks on Syria starting in Vienna on October 29.
    The tour, due to end on November 3, will also be the first-ever visit by a US secretary of state to all five Central Asian republics on the same trip.
    While in Bishkek, Kerry will participate in the opening of the new campus of the American University of Central Asia and dedicate the new offices of the US embassy.
    In Samarkand, Uzbekistan, he will participate in a joint meeting with the foreign ministers of all five countries as part of a new format for dialogue between the United States and the Central Asian countries known as the C5+1.
    In Astana, the secretary of state will participate in a meeting of the US-Kazakhstan Strategic Partnership Dialogue and deliver remarks on Central Asia’s role at Nazarbayev University.
    Kerry will also meet senior Turkmen and Tajik government officials in Ashgabat and Dushanbe, according to RFE/RL.