Rubio Meets Central Asian Foreign Ministers in Uzbekistan

AFP

Governor of Samarkand Adiz Boboev welcomes US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he arrives at the airport.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met the foreign ministers of five Central Asian countries in Uzbekistan on Monday.

Rubio arrived in the historic Silk Road city of Samarkand late on Sunday and held talks on Monday morning with the foreign ministers of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

US officials have described the visit as an important opportunity to expand American soft power and deepen engagement with the region.

The Trump administration has portrayed resource-rich Central Asia — wedged between Russia, Iran and China — as a major geopolitical battleground that deserves more attention than it has received under previous administrations. US officials have placed ⁠a particular emphasis on trying to secure greater access to the area's rare earth mineral supplies. Rubio came to Samarkand with more than 200 US business leaders in tow, the State Department said.

"I mean, look, it's competition," Rubio told journalists on Monday morning after strolling through Registan Square, a complex of three imposing, azure-tiled madrassas that date to the Timurid Empire. "We have products, we have companies, they make things, and we just want fair competition and an opportunity."

Upon arriving at Registan Square, Rubio's Uzbek hosts released hundreds of pigeons into the sky and filled the vast space with local pop music. Upon landing in Samarkand on Sunday night, Rubio was warmly embraced by Uzbekistan's foreign minister, Bakhtiyor Saidov, while two women clad in elaborate gold-and-black traditional dresses known as chopons presented him with a bouquet.

Asked upon departure from Washington on Saturday why he was going to Uzbekistan now, ⁠Rubio said foreign trips were too often designed to resolve immediate issues, rather than build long-term relationships.

"You're always visiting someplace where there's a crisis or there's a problem or ... you're going because there's a conference," he said.

There are signs that some of the Central Asian countries attending the meetings are strengthening their diplomatic and economic ties with Washington. All five are former Soviet republics.

Kazakhstan, for example, agreed in November to join the Abraham Accords, a US-led initiative aimed at normalising or strengthening relations between Israel and participating countries, including several with Muslim-majority populations.

On Monday, Uzbekistan signed the Artemis Accords, a US-led multilateral framework that establishes non-binding principles and guidelines for peaceful space exploration and the use of space resources.

However, all five countries continue to maintain significant commercial and diplomatic relations with Russia, while their ties with China and Iran vary in extent. Rubio acknowledged these longstanding relationships.

"Countries want to have as many relationships as possible," Rubio told reporters while speaking alongside Saida Mirziyoyeva, the daughter of Uzbekistan's president and the head of the presidential office.

"Uzbekistan's been clear: they want to be friends to everybody."



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