Ambassador Kirk met with Prime Minister Igor Chudinov from Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia this afternoon. His meeting with the Prime Minister came at a time when we are enjoying steadily improving relations between our two countries. Kyrgyzstan, as the host of the Manas Transit Center, makes a major contribution to supplying U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister and Ambassador Kirk also had a chance to discuss our common endeavor to increase trade and investment between the United States and Kyrgyzstan, and with Central Asia as a whole. Ambassador Kirk told the Prime Minister that the U.S. government wants to do whatever we can to help the Kyrgyz government improve the business climate in Kyrgyzstan. This is one of the ways that USTR can work to increase the opportunities for U.S. business.
In particular, they talked about the upcoming meeting that USTR will host here in Washington on October 8 as part of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with all of the Central Asian countries - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
This TIFA Council meeting (the 4th since the TIFA was signed in 2004) is an opportunity to raise the level and effectiveness of our efforts to strengthen U.S.-Central Asia economic ties. To take advantage of the event, USTR partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to organize a major conference on U.S.-Central Asia business and investment on October 7, just before the formal government session
