WASHINGTON/CLARKSDALE, Miss (CI GCA) – The proposed summit meeting between President Donald J. Trump and the reformer president of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, in the iconic Mississippi Delta city of Clarksdale would clearly highlight the Trump’s White House policy of using job creating private sector investment as a means to undermine, and ultimately defeat, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
[US Congressman and Brigadier General Trent Kelly (R-Miss) and US House Department of Homeland Security Chairman US. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI GCA using CI Glass on a summit between US President Donald Trump and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Clarksdale, Mississippi at the Uzbekistan Independence Day reception with Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation ALC in Washington, DC]
Talk of a Clarksdale summit between President Trump and Uzbek President Mirziyoyev comes on the heels of a historic US state visit by Mississippi Governor Phil Byrant with a delegation of private sector companies led by Mars, Inc. Delta-based Uncle Ben’s Rice to Tashkent in June. This was the first time a US governor has ever held an official state visit to independent Uzbekistan (or any other Central Asian nation).
During Mirziyoyev’s White House visit with President Trump on May 16, 2018, President Trump presented the Central Asian leader with with America’s sweetest carrot: USD 6.5bn in contracts with US big businesses such as conglomerates GE (NYSE:GE) and Honeywell (NYSE:HON); agriculture machinery giants Deere & Company (NYSE DE) and Case New Holland (NYSE:CNHI); and Boeing (NYSE:BA) jets for the soon-to-be privatized Uzbekistan Airways.
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross made a later follow-up visit to Uzbekistan in October 2018 by keynoting a major financial investment conference in Tashkent.
Speaking to Capitol Intelligence/CI GCA during Uzbekistan Independence Day celebration held on September 28, 2019 in Washington, DC, US Congressman and Mississippi National Guard Brigadier General US Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.) said Mississippi and Uzbekistan are tied together through the Department of Defense’s State Partnership Program between the Mississippi National Guard and the government of Uzbekistan.
[Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI GCA using CI Glass on upcoming visit to Uzbekistan with Mississippi National Guard Brigadier General and US Congressman Trent Kelly to meet Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev during National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington. DC. February 24, 2019]
Mississippi Governor Phil Byrant state visit to Uzbekistan was also historic as it was the first time a US state used its State Partnership — the DOD that twins individual US state National Guard units with countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America — as the impetus for an official trade mission.
In fact, Congressman Kelly was formally awarded a presidential medal by Uzbek Foreign Minister Abulaziz Kamilov at the Uzbekistan Independence Day celebration held in the Ronald Reagan Trade Center in Washington DC on September 27, 2019 for creating the new close ties between the United States and the Central Asian nation thanks to his two hats: A US congressman and a serving brigadier general in the Mississippi National Guard.
“We would love to copy what Mississippi did with Michigan and get a delegation of Michigan-based companies to Latvia,” the chairman of Riga-based bank said when informed of Latvia’s State Partnership with Michigan.
The US sees Uzbekistan as strategic partner both in terms of lessening US military involvement in Afghanistan and by curbing China’s aggressive ambitions in Central Asia via her “One Belt, One Road” project to recreate the ancient Silk Road.
Uzbekistan is the world’s sixth largest producer of cotton (1m ton of fiber/4%-5% of global production), which accounts for circa 17% of the country’s export and the large share of its foreign currency reserves.
It is the common cotton heritage – both good and bad – that ties Mississippi and Uzbekistan together along with Uzbekistan’s critical role in the ongoing hostilities in neighboring Afghanistan.
Clarksdale is also the headquarter of the Delta Regional Authority that brings together the governors of Mississippi, Alabama (Regions Bank NYSE: RF), Arkansas (Walmart NYSE: WMT), Illinois (Caterpillar NYSE: CAT), Kentucky (Brown-Forman), Louisiana (Entergy NYSE: ETR ), Missouri (Emerson), and Tennessee (Fedex NYSE: FDX and International Paper NYSE:IP).
[Hobson Plantation co-cowner James Butler speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI GCA using CI Glass on the revolutionary 1944 Howell Hobson’s Cotton Picker (now CNH Industrial (NYSE:CNHI ) near Clarksdale, Mississippi. August 10, 2017]
Clarksdale, Mississippi is world famous both for having invented the modern cotton industry but also as the birth place of the blues, the precursor of Rock and Roll.
Even the name of the Clarksdale’s Ground Zero Blues Club, founded by American actor Morgan Freeman and Mississippi litigator Bill Luckett –is aptly named to be part of a high level summit to implement solutions to end the near 18-year military conflict in Afghanistan.
The Trump/Mirziyoyev summit could be an impetus for Trump’s sons — Eric and Donald Jr—to relaunch plans to build out three new four star hotels in the Mississippi Delta under the Trump Organization’s Scion line in Clarksdale, Greensville and Cleveland, Mississippi.
The powerful congressman from Clarksdale, US House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said he is ready to welcome all comers with true to Delta hospitality and Clarksdale’s well-earned fame for tolerance and generosity.
By PK Semler in Washington DC and Clarksdale, Mississippi. For more information, please call +1-202-549-3399 or email pks@capitolintelgroup.com
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