A July 11 Opinion column in the Wall Street Journal by officials of the American Foreign Policy Institute and the Hudson Institute cautioned that United States should pay attention to the Tashkent meeting this week (July 15-16), of the foreign ministers of that country, China, Russia, Iran, India and Turkey, and Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan and President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, and by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan on “Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity. Challenges and Opportunities.” As of last week, the U.S. State Department was sending a representative, but below the level of Secretary of State.
In addition, TASS reported that “Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar will take part in the meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)/Afghanistan Contact Group on July 14,” according to Russian Special Presidential Envoy for SCO Affairs Bakhtiyer Khakimov. The two-day SCO meeting of foreign ministers is July 13-14 in Dushanbe; the SCO/Afghanistan Contact Group meeting will take place on July 14 with the Afghan Foreign Minister. It will discuss “promoting regional security and stability, advancing the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan, and deepening cooperation between the SCO and Afghanistan,” said China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, according to ABC News.
As for the Journal piece, it is pure geopolitics – development of the region is in U.S. interest only because it will supposedly counter the power and influence of Russia, particularly, but also China, even though China is “best placed to shape the region’s destiny” – as an anti-American region, of course, in the authors’ view.
