Biden administration up to its tricks in Central Asia

The C5+1 summit US President Joe Biden hosted on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, the first of its kind, indicates Washington is now eyeing Central Asia in an effort to put further pressure on China and Russia.

The Tuesday summit vividly shows the US' slight to the five countries in the region — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Unlike the conventional arrangement of multilateral meetings that often choose round tables to embody the equality of all sides, Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken occupied the two seats in the center of an arc table with the leaders of the five countries seated on the two wings. As such, the address Biden made to the media before the summit looked more like a lecture and the support he vowed the US will give these Central Asian countries sounded like condescending gifts.

Although Biden stressed the US would like to extend its counterterrorism funding to the region and strengthen economic connectivity with it, as well as mineral and energy cooperation, all know that these are only a cover for the US efforts to drive wedges between the region and Russia and China.