Trip aims to "encourage progress"
on political, human-rights efforts
By Tim Receveur, Washington File
Staff Writer
Washington - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan October 10-13 to "encourage progress" on political, economic, security and human-rights efforts in the region, the State Department announced.
Her trip closely follows a visit to the region by Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried September 26-30. (See related article). It comes as votes still are being counted for Afghanistan's September 18 parliamentary elections and as preparations are under way for Kazakhstan's scheduled presidential election December 4.
A State Department announcement said the purpose of the trip is "to advance bilateral and regional cooperation on security issues, to promote freedom through democratic and market-oriented reform, and to strengthen security in the region, including cooperation on counter-terrorism."
Rice is scheduled to meet with presidents Kurmanbek Bakiyev of the Kyrgyz Republic, Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, and Emomali Rahmonov of Tajikistan. She also plans to meet with leaders of civil society and the small business community to express support for their efforts.
"The general message [of Rice's trip] is one of support for the ongoing political change and economic reform that is ongoing in this important region, and to underline our support for those who will undertake the necessary political and economic reforms, to have respect for human rights, to promote free speech, to promote good governance," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters at an October 4 briefing.
The spokesman said the countries Rice is visiting "are opening up to the rest of the world."
"We have seen a substantial change in this region over the past decades and the secretary's trip to the region underlines our support for those ongoing changes," he said.
In response to a question, McCormack said the United States is not trying to "dictate to these countries what kind of relationship they should have with Russia or China."
"We would encourage strong, transparent relationships between these countries and their neighbors in the region," he said.
Asked about Uzbekistan, McCormack said that Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, during his recent visit "made it very clear that we would like to have a broad relationship with Uzbekistan" based on a 2002 agreement covering political, security, economic, humanitarian and legal cooperation. (See State Department fact sheet on the 2002 agreement.)
Fried also reiterated the United States' call for an independent international investigation into the May violence by Uzbek security forces against civilians in and around the city of Andijon.
"There are real concerns about some of the recent actions by the Uzbek government," McCormack said, adding that the Uzbek government "should reflect upon what sort of relationship it would want with not only the United States, but the rest of the world."
On Afghanistan, he noted that that government "has said that it is important to have a continued assistance from the outside world as it moves down the pathway to consolidating its gains in -- security gains as well as its gains in promoting democracy.... We would encourage other states to continue making the kinds of contributions that they have made."
McCormack said Rice might travel to other countries at the end of her regional tour, but he declined to elaborate.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)