Trump Resets Ties with Central Asia In Bid to Diversify Critical Minerals Sourcing

On 6 October 2025, US President Donald Trump invited to the White House the five leaders of Central Asian, namely, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, collectively known as the C5. In his welcome statement, Trump underlined that the C5 forms ‘a magnificent part of the world’ that has been neglected completely by the previous Administration. In the face of export controls on #RareEarths by China, the USA is working to redraw the Global Supply Chains (#GSC) for #CriticalMinerals.

“The United States is the largest investor in our economy, with over $100 billion invested. During my visit alone, our businesses are concluding deals worth over $17 billion. Kazakhstan supplies about 25% of America’s uranium demand and hosts more than 600 US companies.”

Kazak President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

The Central Asia region produces nearly half of the world’s #uranium, which is the fuel for nuclear power plants and the raw material for nuclear weapons. Trump will have a challenging task as most of these countries were part of the Soviet Union and are traditionally closer to Russia, and even China.

“Tajikistan ranks second in the world in #antimony production and is currently the largest producer of metallic antimony, which the United States is deeply interested in. Antimony made up 97% of Tajikistan’s exports to the US last year.”

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon

The C5+1 Meeting is the main dialogue platform between the USA and the five Central Asian states and was established in 2015. Russia and China also have similar frameworks to push forward cooperation with Central Asia.