Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Ambassador Alice Wells will travel with a delegation to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Tashkent, Uzbekistan on February 25-28.

In Bishkek, PDAS Wells will with a meet with senior government officials and visit the American University of Central Asia to meet with students and faculty. She will also participate in a joint public event with Kyrgyz Republic Minister of Finance Baktygul Jeenbaeva to mark the successful cooperative efforts by our governments to return $4.6 million of assets stolen by the family of former President Kurmanbek Bakiev to the Kyrgyz people.

PDAS Wells will then travel to Tashkent where she will lead the U.S. government interagency delegation to conduct U.S.-Uzbekistan Annual Bilateral Consultations with Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov. PDAS Wells will meet senior Uzbek government officials to discuss U.S.-Uzbek cooperation on global and regional security issues; the peace process in Afghanistan; economic and trade agreements; human rights, including religious freedom; and joint U.S.-Uzbek programs on judicial reform, public education, and women’s rights. This will be the first Annual Bilateral Consultations conducted following President Mirziyoyev’s historic visit to Washington in May 2018, which ushered in a new era of strategic partnership between the United States and Uzbekistan.

The United States looks forward to strengthening our partnership with Uzbekistan to support the implementation of President Mirziyoyev’s reform agenda and advancing the strong bilateral ties between our two peoples.