Central Asia Has What the US Wants

The C5+1 annual summit, established in 2015, has offered a diplomatic platform for the United States to engage with the five Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The November 6 C5+1 is the first to be held at the White House. Relations between the United States and Central Asia have shifted over the years, taking on a new significance since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Central Asian leaders have indicated that this summit will be a welcome opportunity for their nations to diversify foreign relations beyond Russia and China. Two main topics will dominate negotiations in the coming days.

Critical Minerals

Critical minerals including copper, cobalt, and nickel are essential to clean energy technologies such as EV batteries and motors. Demand for these materials worldwide is set to quadruple between 2022 and 2050 as states continue to invest in clean energy technology. That increasing demand is good news for Central Asian governments, as officials have indicated that natural resource trade will increasingly guide their foreign policy.

Further, Central Asia’s resources provide an avenue for the United States to challenge China’s dominance of critical mineral supply chains. Kazakhstan is the world’s leading uranium producer and a top-ten copper and zinc exporter, so it is safe to say that the region’s natural resources have caught the West’s attention. State Department officials toured Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in October as part of an effort to strengthen bilateral relations and expand commercial ties.

Trade Deals

A likely additional focus of C5+1 will be strengthening US-Central Asia trade relations. Western trade sanctions against Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion have rewritten Central Asia’s global economic role, as many Western states now route their trade through once-niche transport networks throughout the region. These diversified trade routes pose existential opportunities for once geographically cloistered nations to expand their economic sovereignty and political independence.

Several Central Asian states are coming to the negotiating table with specific trade goals in mind. In October 2025, Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin lobbied members of the US Congress to remove Kazakhstan from the Jackson-Vanik list. This amendment to the trade act of 1974, a relic of the Cold War, imposes trade restrictions on formerly communist countries based on their express willingness to allow freedom of movement and emigration. Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are all still subject to this amendment; repealing it would eliminate the need for what they understand to be an unnecessary annual review.

Above all, this year’s C5+1 summit will allow Central Asian leaders to refresh their longstanding bilateral relationships with the United States. Whether these negotiations will yield tangible results will depend largely on what mineral processing and refinement commitments the United States is willing to make. Given Central Asia’s economic dependence on Russia and its increasingly close ties with China, the United States would be wise to offer an opportunity for these states to counter entrenched partnerships.