Trump hosts Central Asian leaders as US seeks to defraud China over rare earth minerals

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will host the leaders of five Central Asian countries at the White House on Thursday as he ramps up his search for rare earth minerals needed for high-tech devices, including smartphones, electric cars and fighter planes.

Trump and officials from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will hold an evening summit and dinner following Trump’s administration of at least a temporary de-escalation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping over disagreements between the United States and China over the export of rare earth elements, a major sticking point in their trade negotiations.

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Early last month, Beijing expanded export restrictions on vital rare earth elements and magnets before announcing, following Trump and Xi’s talks in South Korea last week, that China would postpone its new restrictions for one year.

Washington is now looking for new ways to deceive China over important minerals. China accounts for approximately 70% of the world’s rare earth mining and controls approximately 90% of the world’s rare earth processing.

Central Asia has significant reserves of rare earth minerals and produces nearly half of the world’s uranium, which is critical for nuclear energy production. But the region is in dire need of investment to continue developing its resources.

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Central Asian exports of important minerals have long been directed towards China and Russia. For example, in 2023 Kazakhstan sent $3.07 billion worth of critical minerals to China and $1.8 billion to Russia compared to $544 million to the United States, according to country-level trade data compiled by the Observatory of Economic Complexity, an online data platform.

A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday introduced legislation to repeal Soviet-era trade restrictions that some lawmakers say hinder American investment in Central Asian countries, which became independent with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“Today, it is not too late to deepen our cooperation and ensure the ability of these countries to self-determine, as a restless Russia and an increasingly aggressive China pursue 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 a sponsor of the legislation. “The United States offers Central Asian countries a real opportunity to work with a willing partner, while simultaneously lifting each other’s economies.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a reception with foreign ministers of Central Asian countries at the State Department in Washington on November 5, 2025. Photo by Nathan Howard/Reuters

The grouping of countries, referred to as the P5+1, has largely focused on regional security, especially in light of the two-decade-long US military presence and then withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan, China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, and Russia’s attempts to reassert its power in the region.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio received Central Asian leaders at the State Department on Wednesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the C5+1 and to highlight the potential for expanding the countries’ economic ties with the United States.

“Often we spend so much time focusing on crises and problems — which are worthy of attention — that we sometimes don’t spend enough time focusing on new and exciting opportunities,” Rubio said. “And that is what is here now: an exciting new opportunity in which our countries’ national interests are aligned.”

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and US Ambassador to India Sergio Gore, who also serves as President Donald Trump’s special envoy to South and Central Asia, recently visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to prepare for the summit.

Administration officials say deepening the US relationship with these countries is a priority, a point they have made to Central Asian officials.

“The president’s commitment to this region is that you will have a direct line to the White House, and that you will get the attention that this region so richly deserves,” Gore told Central Asian officials on Wednesday.

In 2023, Democratic President Joe Biden met with the five leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. This was the only other time a president participated in a P5+1 summit.

AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.