On a brisk evening in Washington, D.C., the White House played host to a gathering with global implications. On November 6, 2025, President Donald Trump welcomed the leaders of five Central Asian nations—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—for a summit that, while steeped in ceremony, was laser-focused on the future of rare earth metals and the shifting tectonics of international supply chains. The stakes? Nothing less than the world’s access to the building blocks of modern technology.
As the sun set over the capital, the leaders convened for bilateral meetings in the Oval Office, followed by a working dinner in the White House’s East Room. The occasion marked only the second time a sitting U.S. president had participated in a summit with the so-called “C5+1” group, the first being President Joe Biden’s meeting with the same leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in 2023, according to the Associated Press.
The timing of the summit was no coincidence. Just weeks prior, President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had managed a temporary thaw in their ongoing trade dispute over rare earth elements—a set of 17 minerals essential for everything from smartphones to electric vehicles and fighter jets. China, which accounts for nearly 70% of the world’s rare earth mining and controls roughly 90% of global processing, had expanded export restrictions in early October. However, following Trump-Xi talks in South Korea, Beijing agreed to delay these new restrictions by a year, as reported by Bloomberg and AP.
With China’s grip on the rare earth market as tight as ever, the U.S. is looking for alternatives. Central Asia, it turns out, is sitting atop a treasure trove of these critical minerals. The region also produces about half of the world’s uranium—vital for nuclear power—though it needs significant investment to fully develop these resources. “One of the key items on our agenda is critical minerals,” Trump declared at the dinner, according to Bloomberg. “In recent weeks, my administration has strengthened American economic security by forging agreements with allies and friends across the world to broaden our critical mineral supply chains.”
The numbers tell a story of untapped potential. In 2023, Kazakhstan alone exported $3.07 billion in critical minerals to China and $1.8 billion to Russia, but only $544 million to the United States, as highlighted by the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Central Asia’s mineral exports have long favored its giant neighbors, but the U.S. is eager to change that dynamic. “We’re strengthening our economic partnerships, improving our security cooperation, and expanding our overall bonds,” Trump said, according to The Hill.
The summit unfolded against the backdrop of new legislative efforts in Washington. On November 5, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to repeal Soviet-era trade restrictions that, in their view, have discouraged American investment in Central Asia since the region’s countries gained independence in 1991. “Today, it’s not too late to deepen our cooperation and ensure that these countries can decide their own destinies, as a volatile Russia and an increasingly aggressive China pursue their own national interests around the globe at the cost to their neighbors,” said Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as quoted by AP. “The United States offers Central Asian nations the real opportunity to work with a willing partner, while lifting up each others’ economies.”
But minerals weren’t the only item on the menu. The gathering also marked the 10-year anniversary of the C5+1, an initiative that has traditionally focused on regional security—especially in the wake of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, concerns over China’s treatment of ethnic Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, and Russia’s attempts to reassert influence in the region. “We oftentimes spend so much time focused on crisis and problems—and they deserve attention—that sometimes we don’t spend enough time focused on exciting new opportunities,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the visiting leaders at the State Department the day before the summit. “And that’s what exists here now: an exciting new opportunity in which the national interests of our respective countries are aligned.”
Preparation for the summit was meticulous. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor—who also serves as Trump’s special envoy to South and Central Asia—recently visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to lay the groundwork for the high-stakes talks. Administration officials have repeatedly emphasized that deepening ties with these countries is a top priority. “The president’s commitment to this region is that you have a direct line to the White House, and that you will get the attention that this area very much deserves,” Gor assured the Central Asian officials, according to AP.
For the Central Asian leaders, the summit was an opportunity to reposition their countries as indispensable partners in a rapidly changing world. Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon highlighted his nation’s “very rich, boundless” critical mineral resources, while acknowledging the geopolitical pressures of being sandwiched between Russia and China. “We are very keen to continue closely our cooperation on security items, which we are so concerned for,” Rahmon said, as reported by AP.
One unexpected development emerged from the evening: Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev agreed to join the Trump-led Abraham Accords, the diplomatic initiative aimed at normalizing ties between Israel and Muslim-majority nations. Trump announced the move just before the dinner began, hoping to inject momentum into the initiative that was a hallmark of his first term. Kazakhstan has maintained diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992, but joining the Accords is seen as a symbolic gesture toward broader regional cooperation. Trump expressed optimism that more countries would join the expanded Abraham Accords, especially as Iran’s regional influence wanes. “One of the reasons is, we are right now in negotiations, or talks, with many countries that really wanted to come in, but they couldn’t because of the status of Iran—where Iran had a possibility of nuclear weapons, which they do not have now,” Trump said during the dinner, according to AP. On the ongoing Gaza ceasefire, the president was emphatic: “It’s not tentative. It’s very strong peace.”
For all the diplomatic niceties, the underlying message was clear: The U.S. wants to move quickly to secure new supply lines for rare earths and other strategic resources, reducing its reliance on China. For Central Asia, the summit offered a chance to attract much-needed investment and to assert a degree of independence from the gravitational pull of Beijing and Moscow. As the evening drew to a close, both sides seemed eager to turn a page—one that could reshape the global landscape of technology, security, and diplomacy for years to come.
In a world where the smallest minerals can have the biggest impact, the White House summit may prove to be a turning point, signaling a new era of cooperation between the U.S. and Central Asia—one defined as much by opportunity as by necessity.
