PARIS (Le MOCI) — Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, French Secretary of State to the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, began a 5-day tour of Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) on 15 April. Pascal Lorot, the Minister’s new special representative for economic diplomacy in Central Asia, will accompany him on this journey, for whom it will be a baptism of fire.

In Turkmenistan, the Secretary of State, accompanied by representatives of some 15 French companies, will co-chair the third session of the Joint Economic Commission and will also visit the Museum of Fine Arts, where ancient objects discovered during the excavations of the Franco-Turkmen archaeological mission are on display.

In Uzbekistan, the Secretary of State will follow up on the projects discussed during President Mirziyoyev’s visit to France. He will travel to Tashkent and Samarkand where the French Development Agency (Agence française de développement, AFD) is financing an urban waste management project. He will also co-chair a business forum, in the presence of some 50 representatives of French companies, who will visit several joint projects, including the tourism development of the Bostonliq mountain site in Charvak.

In Tajikistan, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne will participate in the official handover ceremony to the Tajik authorities of a control tower, built and financed by France, at the Dushanbe airport base, in recognition of the accommodation of a French air detachment between 2001 and 2014 as part of the operations in Afghanistan. The construction of this tower will mark the final stage of the renovation of the airport’s infrastructure, which has been underway since 2004. Mr Lemoyne will also mention the exhibition In the Land of the Golden Rivers: Archaeology of Tajikistan, which will be inaugurated at the Guimet Museum in November 2019.

Finally, in Kyrgyzstan, the Secretary of State will present French know-how in mountain first aid and access to remote areas. He will inaugurate the new premises of the French Institute for Central Asian Studies (Institut français d’études sur l’Asie centrale], IFEAC) in Bishkek and visit the Alliance française and the “Franco-German” European School of the Bilimkana Foundation.