On February 3, 2023, Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United States Bakyt Amanbaev met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu.
During the meeting there was an exchange of views on current and problematic issues of bilateral relations and prospects for further fruitful cooperation. Assistant Secretary Lu noted that the U.S. side is interested and ready to develop bilateral cooperation aimed at strengthening the independence, territorial integrity and security of the two countries.
During the conversation Ambassador Amanbaev noted that in connection with the war in Ukraine, due to international sanctions imposed on Russia, the mechanism of transportation of necessary goods by Kyrgyz companies from Russia to the Kyrgyz Republic has been broken, and stressed that this once has created serious socio-economic problems in the country.
Ambassador Amanbaev shared his views and specific proposals for strengthening Kyrgyz-American cooperation in 2023 and asked to extend tourist visas to the United States from five to ten years and make it easier for Kyrgyz citizens to obtain American visas. Assistant Secretary Lu praised the efforts of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov to initiate and implement large-scale projects at the regional level, which have not been implemented in the past thirty years and expressed his full support for the implementation of mutually beneficial projects.
Assistant Secretary Lu shared his proposal that he agrees to increase the validity of tourist visas for citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic to 10 years and he made his suggestions for implementation.