US Envoy Courts Central Asia on Sidelines of SCO Summit

Two high-level US Trump administration emissaries crashed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, holding talks with top Central Asian leaders and disrupting any appearance of unity among the gathering’s attendees. Leading participants in the SCO summit, including top officials from China, Russia and Iran, sought to strengthen what amounts to an anti-US coalition dedicated to diminishing Washington’s global economic influence. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, for example, pushed a plan to “de-dollarize” the global economy. The summiteers adopted a communique on September 1 that in part assailed the United States for its ongoing military and economic campaign…