{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/06/11/daines-urges-enhanced-strategic-relationships-between-america-and-caspian-region/", "Daines Urges Enhanced Strategic Relationships Between America and Caspian Region", "2026-06-11", "2026", "2026-06", "Republican", "Senate", "MT", "Steve Daines", "D000618", "www.daines.senate.gov", "daines", "https://www.daines.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Steve Daines today gave a speech at the Caspian Policy Center\u2019s Trans-Caspian Forum. Read his remarks as prepared for delivery below.\n\nDaines\u2019 remarks as prepared for delivery:\n\nThank you Ambassador Hoagland for that kind introduction and for your long career working to build America\u2019s ties with the Caspian region.\n\nGood morning everyone.\n\nThank you very much to the Caspian Policy Center for hosting this event.\n\nI want to acknowledge a few of today\u2019s participants who have been fellow champions of U.S. engagement in this critical region;\n\nDeputy Secretary of State Chris Landau has been a great advocate for Central Asia at the top of the State Department, traveling to the region last year alongside another friend of mine, Special Envoy Sergio Gor.\n\nAnd visiting from the region are Hikmet Hajiyev, one of President Aliyev\u2019s closest advisors,\n\nErzhan Kazikhan,President Tokayev\u2019s Special Representative to the United States,\n\nand Abdulais Kamilov, President Mirziyoyev\u2019s Special Representative to the United States.\n\nOur relationships are in good hands with you all.\n\nSeveral years ago, I read Zbigniew Brzezinski\u2019s book wherein he describes Central Asia as a wine bottle and the Caucasus as the cork.\n\nThe broader Caspian Basin has obvious geographic importance due to its position between Russia, China, and Iran, but there was also an obvious lack of engagement from the U.S.\n\nI travelled to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Kyrgyz Republic in 2024.\n\nNo U.S. Senator had been to all five countries in well over a decade.\n\nIn all five countries, I met with the heads of state, and we hit it off immediately. I was struck by their message, their tone, their tenor, and how we were aligned on core values.\n\nAll five sincerely wanted to deepen their relationship with the United States because of our shared respect for sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.\n\nI then visited the South Caucasus in May of 2025, while Armenia and Azerbaijan were locked in intense peace negotiations brokered by the Trump administration.\n\nI was able to have frank conversations with President Aliyev and Prime Minister Pashinyan and to offer some creative solutions to some of the more intractable problems in the talks.\n\nThese were two countries that had been in steady conflict for decades earnestly trying to move toward a stable peace and to build new relations with the United States.\n\nAs I visited all these countries\u2019 capitals, I was struck by how much they represented the best parts of our own country.\n\nThe cities were filled with young families and vibrant populations with sincere hope for the future. I realized that the United States could no longer neglect to invest in countries that so deeply wanted a relationship with the U.S. and whose friendship carried such geopolitical importance.\n\nAmerica\u2019s involvement in the Caspian region represents a fundamental shift on both sides.\n\nThe countries of the region long looked north to Russia for regional leadership, a convention that the Soviet Union, and subsequently Russian Federation, abused for their own cynical purposes.\n\nRussia made prolonged concerted efforts to maintain strife and conflict among regional states while discouraging broad based economic growth in order to maintain their regional dominance.\n\nThe United States concurrently did not prioritize relations with countries in the region despite their outreach.\n\nIn fact, the U.S. failed to convert years of counterterrorism cooperation during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into anything resembling a long-lasting relationship.\n\n2025 marked the end of that era.\n\nPresident Trump, Secretary Rubio, and this administration\u2019s firm commitment to pursuing the American national interest coupled with courageous leadership in Central Asia and the Caucasus has created a tremendous opportunity for a new age of engagement and friendship.\n\nLast year brought the signing of a landmark peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as the profoundly important C5+1 Summit, both events I was pleased to facilitate here in Washington.\n\nThese two events, while important in their own right, are indicative of a broader shift to a new age of American diplomacy as well as a new focus on this geostrategically critical region.\n\nThe United States, Central Asia, and the Caucasus are at last strategically aligned.\n\nBecause of this fundamental change, our relationships are at a point of such goodwill that they should last long beyond my departure from the Senate or the end of this administration.\n\nAmerica\u2019s need to diversify its supply chain and expand its circle of friends coupled with Central Asia and the Caucasus\u2019 desire to bring their countries forward into the future will drive these relationships and create mutually beneficial opportunities and economic security.\n\nWe are expanding partnerships across economic sectors, investing up and down the value chain in critical minerals and rare earths, as well as in energy, telecom, agriculture, and digital and traditional infrastructure.\n\nWe are building connections that will drive these relationships forward through strategic partnerships and development MOUs, with both private sector and government-backed investments.\n\nThese new systems will be the engine that drives these relationships forward and delivers concrete, strategically important results.\n\nThe White House, State Department, DFC, Ex-Im Bank, and Department of War, among others, will all have a role to play.\n\nWe are building momentum that will move these partnerships along the path to prosperity. Building closer relations between our countries is not simply desirable but is a strategic imperative.\n\nThese relationships must now focus on concrete deliverables, on new mines, updated infrastructure, and AI stack investment. We must focus on getting shovels in the ground or under the Caspian.\n\nWhether it be TRIPP, critical mineral projects, energy production, telecom infrastructure, or other important initiatives.\n\nHopefully these projects can lead to the ultimate completion of the Caspian Interconnector to connect European-bound pipelines to Turkmenistan\u2019s vast gas reserves, a critical project that would provide massive economic benefit to our Turkmen friends while delivering increased energy security to our allies in Europe.\n\nThis would also create a foundation and opportunity for other nations to diversify their infrastructure away from Russia and invest in both regional partners and domestic capabilities that will advance global economic security.\n\nBut we too must redouble our commitment to these partnerships.\n\nCentral Asia and Azerbaijan have for too long been subject to the outdated Jackson-Vanik trade restrictions. I am working with bipartisan colleagues in the House and the Senate to repeal this relic of the Cold War and ensure that America can make the long-term investments necessary to bring about real change.\n\nBrezenski\u2019s dream of uncorking Central Asia through peace in the South Caucasus is finally coming true; Central Asia for the first time will have a continuous route to the West that does not pass through Russia or Iran.\n\nThis new connection will spur greater economic partnership across the West, as well as greater intra-regional cooperation between Central Asian and the Caucasus.\n\nFurther economic integration across Central Asia and the Caucasus will serve our collective interests; creating broad-based economic growth and opportunity for our peoples and bolstering our security, integrity, and resilience.\n\nAmerican investment and capital comes from reliable partners who are actively invested in a project\u2019s successful completion without complex political prerogatives or expectations.\n\nI would be remiss if I did not also mention the outcome of this weekend\u2019s election in Armenia; Prime Minister Pashinyan has led with courage and determination that is both admirable and necessary for his country\u2019s future.\n\nDespite extensive Russian election interference, the people of Armenia have granted him another mandate to lead, and I am sure that he will build even closer relations between our countries. I look forward to continuing to work with him and his team.\n\nThe years ahead will require continued courageous leadership both in the United States as well as across Central Asia and the Caucasus.\n\nThose countries that have chosen to forge an independent future free of coercion or domination will reap the benefits of closer partnership with the United States and integration into the global economic system.\n\nI am tremendously proud of the work done with my friends in the Trump administration as well as in the Caucasus and Central Asia to build these new relationships.\n\nThe past year has delivered countless landmark agreements between our countries that have created a roadmap for our collective future.\n\nI am confident that the work I have been a part of has laid the necessary foundation for long-term American engagement in the Caucasus and Central Asia. But our continued success will depend on future Senators and administrations, and the support should be bipartisan.\n\nA Central Asian official once described his region to me as a submarine; submerged between its neighbors.\n\nThis provides a unique opportunity wherein the United States can utilize its most important asset: trust.\n\nI agree with George Schultz\u2019s words that \u201ctrust is the coin of the realm.\u201d Without trust, true understanding is impossible, and likewise true alignment cannot be achieved.\n\nBecause the United States brings with it the promise of peaceful friendship and mutual benefit, we can build long-term partnerships based on shared values and aspirations that will last long into the future.\n\nAnd while my time left in office is limited, I like to say that I am not retiring but simply repurposing.\n\nI look forward to continuing to work on these vital relationships and issues for the remainder of my time in office and to maintaining the same determination, commitment, and friendships in my next chapter of life.\n\nThank you all for your time.\n\n###", 1, "2026-06-12T06:37:16Z", "2026-06-12T06:39:00Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/06/11/daines-urges-enhanced-strategic-relationships-between-america-and-caspian-region/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 4.724754951894283, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}