The key facts

  • Rubio led a delegation of 200 American business leaders to Uzbekistan
  • In Samarkand he will take part in a C5+1 meeting with the ministers of the five Central Asian countries
  • After Uzbekistan, the Secretary of State will visit India — his second visit to that country in a year

Visit to Central Asia

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio departed on Saturday evening for Central and South Asia to strengthen commercial ties and gain an advantage over Russia and China, AFP reports. He is leading a delegation of 200 business leaders heading to Uzbekistan, where on Monday he will take part in a ministerial meeting of the five Central Asian countries. Before departing, Rubio called the trip a strategic visit and stressed the importance of relations with the region.

C5+1 summit in Samarkand

In the Uzbek city of Samarkand, Rubio will take part in a C5+1 format meeting with the ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. A senior State Department official told journalists that the visit demonstrates Washington's goodwill toward 'deepening partnership across Central Asia,' especially in the energy sector. Another senior American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that the trip had been planned for several months. In November 2025, Trump had already hosted the leaders of these countries at the White House.

Competition with Russia and China

Central Asia is a resource-rich region comparable in area to the European Union but with a population of about 80 million people. The former Soviet republics maintain ties with Moscow through energy pipelines, as well as security and migration networks, but Russian influence has weakened since the start of the war in Ukraine, and China is benefiting from this. Beijing is the main trading partner of all five countries in the region: Chinese companies have concluded a number of energy deals, including the purchase of natural gas in Turkmenistan, uranium in Kazakhstan, and rare earth metals in Tajikistan. The United States, in turn, has made the search for sources of rare earth metals and the diversification of the energy balance key directions of its foreign policy. US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, who also serves as special envoy for Central and South Asia, has repeatedly stressed the need to improve Washington's ties with the region.

Continuation of the route in India

After Uzbekistan, Rubio will head to India with stops in Mumbai and Jamnagar (Gujarat state) — industrial hubs and major port cities. This will be the Secretary of State's second official visit to India in a year, following a trip to New Delhi and Kolkata in May. According to the second senior American official, the sides are 'very close' to a trade agreement, negotiations on which have been ongoing for several months. In February of last year, the sides reached a preliminary agreement on reducing American tariffs on Indian goods, but a few days later the US Supreme Court overturned many of Trump's tariffs, creating uncertainty about the timing of the bilateral deal's entry into force. Relations were complicated when Trump imposed 25 percent duties on Indian goods in response to Delhi's purchases of Russian oil, but these duties were subsequently lifted.

'Commercial diplomacy'

In Mumbai and Jamnagar, Rubio will present the new American 'commercial diplomacy' at meetings with Indian business leaders. In particular, he intends to discuss the plans of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries to finance the construction of an oil refinery in Texas. Context of the trip: the US is involved in a war with Iran, the conflict in Ukraine has not subsided, and the Secretary of State himself, according to AFP, has largely handed over control of the Iranian, Ukrainian and Palestinian dossiers to Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, intensifying his own foreign trips — he recently visited Europe and Latin America — in the midst of the midterm election campaign.