Rubio Arrives in Samarkand for C5+1 Talks With More Than 200 Business Leaders in Tow; US Official Says India Trade Deal Is "Pretty Much Done"
Samarkand — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio landed in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Sunday to meet leaders from the C5+1, the grouping that brings together the United States and Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, according to Reuters. US officials have portrayed resource-rich Central Asia — the region between China, Russia and Iran — as worthy of more attention than it received from President Donald Trump's predecessors.
More than 200 business executives are accompanying Rubio to Uzbekistan, the State Department said. A Central Asian diplomat said the Trump administration has focused its commercial efforts on expanding access to the area's rare earth mineral resources. Trump hosted the C5 leaders at the White House last November, when Kazakhstan agreed to join the Abraham Accords, and met with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the United Nations General Assembly last September.
One Central Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials in the region are wondering to what extent the US will continue targeting Russian sanctions evasion: all five states, while drawing closer to the US, have deep historical ties with Moscow, and the region has facilitated Russian imports and exports that violate US and European Union sanctions, Western officials say. Trump struck a deal with Moscow this month to import Russian diesel, a move to lower domestic fuel prices before the congressional midterm elections. On Friday, Trump waived provisions of legislation that would have allowed him to slap massive tariffs on nations that buy significant amounts of Russian crude or otherwise help Moscow evade sanctions; among the nations that could have been affected, experts have said, are India and Kazakhstan.
India, which Rubio will visit after Uzbekistan, remains the world's No. 2 Russian crude importer after China. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the US-India trade deal on Friday as "pretty much done," raising the possibility that an agreement could be announced during the Rubio trip. India's foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Rubio will hold talks in Mumbai on October 20, expected to cover energy, trade and investment, defence, and critical and emerging technologies.
(GSM, via Reuters)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：撒马尔罕雷吉斯坦广场（资料图，鲁比奥此行目的地城市）。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，Bernard Gagnon 摄，CC0 / Photo: Registan Square in Samarkand (file photo; the city Rubio is visiting). Source: Wikimedia Commons, by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.
