Utah Senator Visits Kyrgyzstan

I enjoyed reading Senator Valentine's account of his visit to Kyrgyzstan (I've usually referred to it as Kirgizia - in Russian Киргизия). I have always had an interest in the countries of central Asia. The senator mentions how cordially he was received which is what I would have expected. He also mentions that Kyrgyzstan's national budget is about a tenth of the budget of the State of Utah, even though the population is 5.3 million (almost exactly double).

• Maps of Kyrgyzstan
• Bishkek, the capital city, has a population of about 900,000 people with a stunning view of the Tien Shan mountains in the distance - I'd love to visit there myself.
• US Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic
• The US has an operation at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan that supports operations in Afghanistan
• A 15-person delegation from Kyrgyzstan was hosted in Utah last month
• The Open World Leadership Center hosted the exchange. The center provides grants to US government and nonprofits for this purpose.
• BYU Newsnet article posted to the Open World site.

Due to similar climate and geography, there have been several exchanges with Kyrgyz delegations in the past on topics such as agriculture, economy, and egovernment. 2003 2003b 1996 The Kyrgyz ambassador discusses the importance of this relationship, "Today for us the key issue is to develop trade and economic cooperation with the United States. Its implementation depends also on building a direct partnership with the individual American states. So, with this policy Kyrgyzstan has built close direct relations with such states as Montana, Utah, Pennsylvania. These relations have culminated in historical visits to Montana, Utah and Massachusetts of our President Askar Akaev. We have a very productive partnership with all these states in economic, business, educational, and many other spheres."