SAMARKAND, UZBEKISTAN – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday met Uzbekistan’s autocratic ruler and officials from other Central Asian states accused of being among the world’s worst human rights offenders.
But in the talks in the ancient city of Samarkand, he tempered any public criticism as he sought deeper U.S. ties with the region seen increasingly as lying in the shadow of an assertive Russia and exposed to Islamist militancy.
Kerry was in Samarkand to meet his five Central Asian counterparts and reassure them of continued U.S. engagement in the strategic region.
On the fringes of that meeting, he spoke to Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has ruled Uzbekistan for a quarter of a century and is often criticized internationally for heading a repressive government.
It was the highest-level U.S. encounter with Karimov in years.
Most of the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia have poor human rights records, and a U.S. official insisted that Kerry, on a four-day tour of the region, has not shied away from raising the issue “robustly” behind closed doors.
But he took pains to avoid direct public criticism as he pursued security and economic concerns at the top of his agenda.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/11/02/world/kerry-meets-autocratic-uzbek-leader/#.Vjb7HNLhCGU
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