U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Uzbekistan on Monday to promote trade and ties with Central Asia, during a trip that came amid rumblings that America’s top diplomat is ignoring pressing matters in favor of politically safer visits and meetings.
The trip, which involves a stop in India later this week, seeks to promote U.S. economic and security ties with Central and South Asia. But it has only tangential links to the Trump administration’s current main foreign policy dilemmas in the Middle East and with the Russia-Ukraine war.
Rubio has brushed aside suggestions he is eschewing the most difficult issues in favor of taking on lower-hanging diplomatic fruit with less risk of failure and political damage, and the State Department pushed back on the criticism of his schedule.
In Samarkand, Rubio was meeting with his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan under the C5+1 diplomatic forum, which brings together the five Central Asian countries and the United States to discuss security, trade and other shared concerns.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Rubio said “the United States wants to be a strong partner in Central Asia.”
“Central Asia has just not gotten the level of attention from our policymakers over the last 20 years that it deserves. But that’s changing. That’s why we’re here now,” he said.
Despite repeated assurances from multiple administrations that the U.S. would become more actively involved in Central Asia, the region has often languished as a foreign policy priority in Washington.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the newly independent Central Asian nations saw a brief surge in U.S. interest, but that waned until after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, which turned America’s attention once again toward Afghanistan and its neighbors.
The U.S. established a military presence in several countries mainly as transit points for equipment, materiel and provisions needed by U.S. and allied forces fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
As the U.S. wound down its 20-year operation in Afghanistan, the Trump administration, in both its first and second terms, has sought to elevate its ties with Central Asia due to its location between Russia and China, but also as an underdeveloped area ripe for U.S. business opportunities.
Rubio’s trip, which has been heavily promoted by the U.S. ambassador to India and special presidential envoy for Central Asia, Sergio Gor, is perhaps the most ambitious U.S. attempt in decades to boost economic and commercial ties with the region. Speaking to reporters in Samarkand, Rubio described “an incredible delegation” with representatives of almost 300 American businesses joining.
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“Historically, Central Asia has been the crossroads for trade between the West and the East. And today, as part of a broader renaissance and global engagement, it stands once again to play that vital role in transnational commerce," he told officials at the meeting.
The region is "a new location for investment, and it serves as a new location for export, a central terminal out of which materials that are vital for the future of all nations are being delivered,” he added.
President Donald Trump hosted their leaders at a White House summit last November, and announced more than $130 billion in commercial deals, including agreements for regional airlines to purchase Boeing aircraft.
The administration has also been keen to get the Muslim majority countries to join the Abraham Accords, which expanded the number of Arab states with diplomatic ties with Israel. Kazakhstan, which had already recognized Israel, is the only one of the five to sign the accords.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.