FOREIGN POLICY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump will welcome President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan to the White House on Wednesday [5-16-18], part of what his aides say is an effort to launch a new era of partnership with a country that is making its first fitful turns away from authoritarianism. Mr. Trump plans to raise issues of human rights and press freedoms, according to senior administration officials who previewed the visit on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be identified in discussing it. Administration officials described the meeting as a calculated effort to forge an early alliance with a former Soviet state in a strategically vital location north of Afghanistan in order to encourage its recent moves toward greater political and economic openness. These officials said they had a window of opportunity to prod Uzbekistan — a rare bright spot of change in a region rife with repression — toward greater progress and closer cooperation with the United States. They said Mr. Trump also would use the meeting to press Uzbekistan to support American operations in Afghanistan, develop closer security ties with the nation, improve cooperation on combating terrorist threats in Central Asia and boost the country’s efforts to diversify and expand its economy.”
-Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Trump to Meet Uzbek President, and Press for Human Rights,” The New York Times online, May 16, 2018