Trump hosts Central Asian leaders as US sources for rare earth metals
Trump and representatives from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan held a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office before the working dinner.
“These nations were once home to the ancient Silk Road connecting East and West,” Trump said, noting that “unfortunately, previous American presidents have completely neglected this region.”
He added, “I understand the importance of this region,” but “a lot of people don’t know that.”
The White House visits followed Trump’s handling of at least a temporary thaw with Chinese leader Xi Jinping over disagreements between the United States and China over exports of rare earth elements, a key sticking point in their trade negotiations.
Earlier last month, Beijing expanded export restrictions on vital rare earth elements and magnets, before announcing that China would delay its new restrictions for one year after the Trump-Xi talks in South Korea last week. Washington is now looking for new ways to get around China on critical minerals. China accounts for nearly 70% of the world’s rare earth mining and controls roughly 90% of global rare earth processing. Central Asia has deep reserves of rare earth minerals and produces about half of the world’s uranium, which is critical for nuclear power generation. However, the region is in dire need of investment in further resource development.
The decisive export of mineral raw materials from Central Asia has long favored China and Russia. Kazakhstan, for example, will send $3.07 billion in critical minerals to China and $1.8 billion to Russia in 2023, compared with $544 million to the U.S., according to country-level trade data compiled by the online data platform Observatory of Economic Complexity.
“In recent weeks, my administration has strengthened America’s economic security by striking deals with allies and friends around the world to expand our key mineral supply chains,” Trump said.
He asked each of the visiting presidents to comment, and they praised his efforts to promote trade in their region and peace around the world.
Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon said his country has “very rich, unlimited” critical mineral resources. But he also offered to agree to be in a rough geopolitical neighborhood between Russia and China.
This makes the partnership with the US most important, Rahmon said: “We would very much like to continue to work closely on the security items that we care so much about.
The White House meetings came after a bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation on Wednesday to lift Soviet-era trade restrictions that some lawmakers say are holding back American investment in Central Asian countries that became independent after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
“Today is not too late to deepen our cooperation and ensure that these countries can decide their own destiny as a volatile Russia and an increasingly aggressive China advance their own national interests around the world at the expense of their neighbors,” said Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and sponsor of the legislation. “The United States offers the nations of Central Asia a real opportunity to work with a willing partner while lifting the economies of others.”
The grouping of countries referred to as the “C5+1” has largely focused on regional security, particularly in light of two decades of US military presence and subsequent withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan, China’s treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, and Russia’s attempts to reassert power in the region.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed Central Asian officials to the State Department on Wednesday to mark the 10-year anniversary of the C5+1 and capitalize on the potential for expanding the countries’ economic ties with the US.
“We often spend so much time focusing on crises and problems — and those deserve attention — that sometimes we don’t spend enough time focusing on exciting new opportunities,” Rubio said. “And that is what exists here now: an exciting new opportunity in which the national interests of our respective countries are united.”
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Landau and US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, who also serves as Trump’s special envoy for South and Central Asia, recently visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to prepare for the summit.
Administration officials say deepening U.S. relations with those countries is a priority, a point they made clear to Central Asian officials.
The president’s “commitment to this region is that you have a direct line to the White House and that you get the attention that this area so richly deserves,” Gor told the Central Asian officials.
Also on Thursday, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev agreed that his Muslim-majority country would join the Trump-led Abraham Accords. Trump released news of the deal shortly before the start of Thursday’s dinner.
The largely symbolic move is aimed at reviving an initiative that was a signature foreign policy achievement of Trump’s first term, when his administration established diplomatic and trade ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Kazakhstan has had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992.
With the Gaza ceasefire fragile, Trump hopes Saudi Arabia will join the deals soon, while the White House has said the same about Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country.
Officials in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia say they cannot move forward on normalizing relations with Israel until the path to a Palestinian state is clear.
Trump said during the working dinner that he hopes to announce that more countries will join the expanded Abraham Accords, especially as Iran loses its position in the region.
“One of the reasons is that right now we’re negotiating or dealing with a lot of countries that really wanted to come in but couldn’t because of the status of Iran — where Iran had the capability of nuclear weapons that they don’t have now,” Trump said.
He also rejected the idea that the Gaza ceasefire may not apply.
“It’s not an attempt,” Trump said. “It is a very strong peace.