To review what is publicly known about the participation of the US delegation at the “International Conference on Central and South Asia Regional Connectivity, Challenges and Opportunities", held in Uzbekistan on July 15 and 16:
The Biden team signed two declarations with the Central Asia States in support of connectivity and integrating Afghanistan into Central Asian transportation networks. One communique was with the so-called “C5 plus 1,” which includes the United States and the Central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Kyrgyz Republic—all except Turkmenistan also being members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Another declaration was signed among the US, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan.
According to a White House read-out, the U.S. delegation was led by the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counter-Terrorism, who serves on the National Security Council, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, and included other representatives from the White House National Security Council, the Department of Defense, and Department of State, as well as Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, and the US Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Daniel Rosenblum.
In her address to the conference, Sherwood-Randall spoke of the “thirty years of partnership between the United States and the countries of Central Asia, as well as the U.S. Government’s commitment to realizing the region’s potential as a transit, trade, and energy hub.” She “emphasized the importance of infrastructure development that safeguards the environment and meets the highest international standards, consistent with the aims of the new G7-led Build Back Better World initiative.”
On the sidelines of the conference she participated in a roundtable meeting of the C5+1 diplomatic platform for Central Asia, after which a declaration was signed that called for “seeking opportunities to strengthen connectivity between the Central and South Asian regions via trade, transport, and energy link” and said that ‘‘terrorists and third-party forces must never be allowed to use Afghan territory to threaten or attack the C5+1 countries or any other country.’’
