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The Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs is responsible for U.S. foreign policy and U.S. relations with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Robert O. Blake, Jr. succeeded Richard Boucher to became the bureau's seventh Assistant Secretary of State on May 26, 2009. The Assistant Secretary reports to the Secretary of State through the Under Secretary for Political Affairs.
After six years of trying, Congress allocated the funds to create the Bureau of South Asian Affairs in 1991[1]. Pursuant to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993[2], the Bureau of South Asian Affairs was established on August 24, 1992 after having been a part of the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs since 1958 [3]. In February 2006 the bureau absorbed the Office of Central Asian Affairs from the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.