Pompeo touts US ties to 'reforming' Uzbekistan on last leg of tour

• The United States has "a rapidly growing partnership" with the ex-Soviet nation of 33 million people.
• Uzbekistan's foreign ministry said the top diplomats had discussed Afghanistan, which three of the five countries border.
• Central Asia is a region where both Russia and China enjoy privileged interests, with Washington struggling to keep up in recent years.

TASHKENT: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday showered praise on Uzbekistan's recent reform drive as he concluded a week-long trip in a region dominated by Chinese and Russian interests.

Pompeo held talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who has embarked on ambitious reforms and welcomed tourism and investment in the once-isolated majority-Muslim republic, but kept the authoritarian system intact.

The United States has "a rapidly growing partnership" with the ex-Soviet nation of 33 million people, Pompeo told journalists.

He said the US was "doing its part helping Uzbekistan's reform path continue" adding that his visit was reconition of positive steps made so far under Mirziyoyev, who came to power after hardline predecessor Islam Karimov died in 2016.

Pompeo also met in the Uzbek capital Tashkent with foreign ministers from all five ex-Soviet Central Asian countries -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan's foreign ministry said the top diplomats had discussed Afghanistan, which three of the five countries border.

Pompeo said in Tashkent that Washington remained committed to a peace deal for Afghanistan, but that the militants must "reduce the violence" ahead of any future talks.

Prior to his arrival in Tashkent, Pompeo met the leadership of Uzbekistan's oil-rich neighbour Kazakhstan, where he demanded "an immediate end" to China's "repression" of minorities in the Xinjiang region, which Kazakhstan borders.

More than a million ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs and other minorities are believed to have been incarcerated as part of an unprecedented security crackdown in the region.

Central Asia is a region where both Russia and China enjoy privileged interests, with Washington struggling to keep up in recent years.