Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Central Asia is a region of significant importance to US national interests, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake said at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace Event in Washington.

“Recognizing the uniqueness of each of the five Central Asian nations and their sovereignty and independence, US policy supports the development of fully sovereign, stable democratic nations, integrated into the world economy and cooperating with one another, the United States, and our partners, to advance regional security and stability. This has been our longstanding policy in the region, but how we pursue it has differed under various Administrations,” Blake said.

“Shortly after coming to power the Obama Administration undertook a full review of our approach to Central Asia and decided on five main priorities,” he said. These priorities include:

• Expand cooperation with Central Asian states to assist Coalition efforts in Afghanistan;
• Increase development and diversification of the region’s energy resources and supply routes;
• Encourage political liberalization and respect for human rights;
• Foster competitive market economies and economic reform, and
• Prevent the emergence of failed states, or in more positive terms, increase the capacities of states to govern effectively.

Blake said: “To pursue these priorities the Administration decided to expand our civilian engagement with these countries and establish consultative mechanisms with each country to regularize our dialogue and channel it into realistic work plans to drive progress on the priorities I outlined above.”

He said: “I also want to state that the United States is not in a competition with any country over influence in Central Asia. I know many talk of the Great Game. Again it makes for good newscopy or blogs, but has little basis in reality. Our goal is to maintain mature bilateral relations with each country in Central Asia based on our foreign policy goals and each country’s specific characteristics and dynamics. We recognize other countries have interests in Central Asia. But we don’t accept any country having exclusive interests.”

“We maintain it is in the interest of all countries in the region to undertake policies that can produce a more durable stability and more reliable partners for everyone, including the United States, in addressing critical global and regional challenges, from non-proliferation to counter-narcotics to energy security and combating terrorism,” the US official said.