US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and foreign ministers of five Central Asian countries will discuss cooperation in the so-called C5+1 format in Tashkent on Monday, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on Saturday
TASHKENT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2020) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and foreign ministers of five Central Asian countries will discuss cooperation in the so-called C5+1 format in Tashkent on Monday, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
The US State Department previously announced Pompeo's visits to the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan from January 29 to February 4 to hold meetings with the heads of these states. In particular, the department specified that Pompeo would visit Tashkent on February 2-3 and will take part in a meeting of the C5+1 format.
"On February 3, a regular ministerial meeting of the C5 + 1 format will be held in Tashkent," the ministry said in a statement.
According to the ministry, the meeting will be attended by foreign ministers Mukhtar Tileuberdi of Kazakhstan, Chingiz Aidarbekov of Kyrgyzstan, Sirojiddin Muhriddin of Tajikistan, Rashid Meredov of Turkmenistan and Abdulaziz Kamilov of Uzbekistan.
"It is expected that the foreign ministers will consider urgent issues of developing interaction between the Central Asian countries and the United States," the ministry added.
Meanwhile, the Belarusian BelTA news agency reported that Pompeo had arrived in Minsk with his first visit to Belarus.
The United States and five Central Asian countries � Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan � created the C5+1 format in September 2015 for the interaction to discuss regional issues.
Pompeo's visit to Europe and Central Asia was initially planned for early January. However, on January 1, US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus announced that the State Secretary had postponed the trip due to an attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad.
