Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, left, with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan in Astana on Monday. Mr. Blinken thanked the Kazakh leader for his nation’s “independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty.Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken came to Central Asia to press his case that the region should hold the line against Russian efforts to seek economic aid as Moscow grapples with Western sanctions.
Within hours of landing in Astana, the snow-draped capital of Kazakhstan, he received a sign that the United States had some leverage. The Kazakh president stood next to Mr. Blinken in the blue-domed presidential palace and thanked the Americans for their support of his nation’s “independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
The president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has not criticized Russia’s war, and neither have leaders of the four other Central Asian nations, former Soviet republics with decades-long ties with Moscow. But his pointed statement suggested that, after the invasion of Ukraine, also a former Soviet republic, there was concern that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could try to seize parts of their own nations or encourage separatists.