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02/28/2023 09:36 PM EST
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
Astana, Kazakhstan
Kazakh National University of Arts
QUESTION: My name is Yerdana. I’m a TV host and special correspondent for Oyan! morning show (inaudible) Khabar TV.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: It’s so nice to meet you.
QUESTION: I cover news and culture, international relations, and local current affairs, so it’s a huge opportunity and a pure joy for me –
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you.
QUESTION: — to be the first journalist on your first trip to Kazakhstan.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you.
QUESTION: And right now we are standing next to the Zhambyl’s bust. And I’m today not only a journalist, but also your companion and guide in this university.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you. It’s really wonderful to be with you today. Thanks for doing this.
QUESTION: Okay. So the first is – he is Zhambyl. The bust is Zhambyl Zhabaev, which is 20th-century Homer, and also his poem had this kind of impact on people – unite them during and after the Second World War. And let’s go to this way.
This wing of the university is dedicated to the masterpieces, to arts and to diplomas, certificates of the artists and professors and also the students and alumni of the university. For example, these sculptures, these paintings are all from this university, and they are really in good shape.
And also I would love to show you Dimash. I’m sure you know Dimash, the most popular Kazakh artist and singer.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yes.
QUESTION: These handmade portraits are made by his fans and donated by his mom and to this university to inspire the young generation.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: These are wonderful. These are wonderful.
And is it – it’s interesting, because there’s – these are done by different people.
QUESTION: Different people, different countries.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: But the style is very distinct.
QUESTION: The style is – yeah, similar. So —
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Oh, these are wonderful.
QUESTION: And let’s go to this way. Before introducing these musical instruments, I would love to ask this question. I’m a TV host of the morning show, so I must ask this question.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yes.
QUESTION: I know this morning is very special for you, but I would love to know: How does the perfect morning look like for you?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, for me it’s actually pretty simple. I have two very small children. I have a four-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. So for me, when I’m back in Washington, making sure that I have a few minutes at least to have breakfast with them before they go off to school and I go off to work – that’s perfect. Nothing is better than that.
QUESTION: I hope you have more mornings like this. (Laughter.)
And let’s turn to the musical instruments. These centuries-old musical instruments are very – has their own magical sounds. For example, kobyz here was used to be a healing instrument that heals spiritual and physical wounds of people. Right now it can heal as well when it gets the right player. And when we – when I searched about these instruments, I also met the quotation by Paul McCartney from the Beatles. He said music is like your psychiatrist – you can tell your guitar something that you can’t tell people, and also it will answer something that other people can’t tell you.
So when we mention guitar and these musical instruments, I would love to know about your passion to music. So could you tell us more about your passion to guitar, maybe about Ablinken band, to the viewers?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, it’s been a lifelong passion for me, and it’s something that I started as a young boy and continues through to this day. I still have, I don’t know, eight or nine guitars at home. They look at me and say, “Please pick me up and play me.” I don’t do that often enough.
QUESTION: Do they have names?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I haven’t given them names, but I think, as Paul McCartney said – yeah, I think it’s true the – a musical instrument can be your psychiatrist, your confidant. But beyond that, what I’ve found, especially in this job, is there are few things more powerful at connecting people than music. It transcends everything. It transcends culture; it transcends geography. It transcends different backgrounds. And we find ways to connect as human beings through music that I think we don’t find as powerfully with any other medium. So that’s a wonderful thing to see, and I’ve gone to different parts of the world, and one of the things I love to do is to get a chance to know the local music as well as more broadly the local culture.
But it’s also just a source of great joy and pleasure. I like listening to music and playing it.
QUESTION: And you can be sure that you have a fan here in Kazakhstan, because last week I discovered your music, and Lip Service is my favorite.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, thank you. Now I know who the third streamer is. It was you.
QUESTION: Yeah. (Laughter.) Oh, yeah.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you.
QUESTION: So let’s turn to the – my favorite musical instruments there, and they are dombras.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yes, of course.
QUESTION: I play it as well. So these different shapes of dombra and different types of dombra belong to different artists. They are not only about just decoration or artifact here; they also motivate young artists to be like their owners. For example, this dombra is kind of – its sound has this kind of galloping sound of horses’ hooves, and also each song on it – with dombra will kind of resemble the greatness of steppe, of Kazakh steppe.
And also, I’m sure this will be just small part of the Kazakh culture you will be witnessing today, and I would love to know about this day particularly, about your visit. So I’m sure it will be very intense, and could you please tell us more about your visit, why you’re visiting Kazakhstan and what’s the major goals of this day?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, first, this is a wonderful way to start the day. And I’m grateful for it, because one of the things that is so important to me is, even as the heart of any visit is working with my colleagues in the government in question, it’s also very important to try to connect with different parts of society. And so thank you for this, because it’s a good way for me to start the day doing that.
But for me it’s simple: Kazakhstan is a partner to the United States, is of tremendous importance. Kazakhstan has shown leadership on so many different issues over the year, whether it’s making sure that – getting rid of the nuclear weapons that it inherited from the Soviet Union, a pioneer in the space program, the work that we’re doing every single day not just in Kazakhstan but also to try to build a stronger region where the countries are more interconnected and working together in Central Asia.
One of the things that I’ve found is that most of the challenges that people actually face in their lives, no single country can effectively deal with them alone. And whether it’s the impact that climate may be having on us; whether it’s the impact of something like COVID, a pandemic; whether it’s the way all of the technology that so many of us have in our pockets, in our phones, is shaping our lives – we have to find ways to cooperate, to coordinate, to work together if we’re going to make the most of these things but also deal with any of the problems that they pose or the challenges that they pose.