Blinken to visit Central Asia as Ukraine war raises nerves

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan next week, the State Department said Thursday, courting former Soviet republics uneasy over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The top US diplomat will hold talks Tuesday in Kazakhstan's capital Astana before heading to Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent, on his way to a meeting of Group of 20 foreign ministers in New Delhi, the State Department said.

The trip will come days after the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, which has received billions of dollars in US weapons and economic support to help fight back the Russian invaders.

With the exception of Belarus, whose strongman Alexander Lukashenko is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Soviet republics outside of Russia have declined to rally to Moscow's cause despite close economic and security links.

Creating nervousness, Putin invaded Ukraine in part as he decried treatment of ethnic Russians -- who form a sizable minority in much of Central Asia as well.

Kazakhstan's leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called for a "formula of peace" between Russia and Ukraine and allowed in tens of thousands of Russians fleeing military mobilization.

But Tokayev also met Putin in November and described Russia as a "strategic partner."

The month before the Ukraine invasion, Tokayev called in Russian-led forces to help regain control after riots but he quickly asked them to leave following public opposition.

Uzbekistan has also stayed officially neutral on Ukraine. Its leader, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has billed himself as a reformer more open to the world but the government strictly controls free expression.

Uzbekistan also saw deadly unrest last year after Mirziyoyev's proposed constitutional reforms that would have weakened autonomy for the impoverished Karakalpakstan region.

The United States is not the only country that has been courting Central Asia.

President Xi Jinping of China -- seen by the United States as its foremost international competitor -- visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan last year in his first trip since the Covid-19 pandemic.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed both Tokayev and Mirziyoyev to Paris late last year and has spoken to other Central Asian leaders.