US President Donald Trump has finalized significant trade and investment deals with Central Asian nations—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—aiming to secure critical minerals and diversify supply chains.
These agreements, announced at a summit at the White House on Thursday, focus on rare-earth minerals, energy cooperation, and trade diversification. Trump emphasized that Central Asia is “an extremely wealthy region” with vast reserves of uranium, copper, gold, and rare earth elements. His administration aims to create new partnerships to diversify supply chains and strengthen US access to critical minerals.
The summit produced several commercial and resource agreements, including $17.2 billion in new contracts between Kazakhstan and US companies and a $1.1 billion deal with Astana to develop one of the world’s largest untapped tungsten deposits. Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan also agreed to purchase 37 Boeing jets. Trump added that Uzbekistan plans to invest more than $100 billion over the next decade in US industries such as aviation, automotive parts, and critical minerals.
The summit comes one week after Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea to attempt to settle the ongoing “trade war” between Washington and Beijing. Following the meeting, China agreed to suspend new export controls on rare-earth minerals for one year, while the US postponed plans to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese goods.
Nevertheless, Washington has accelerated efforts to secure alternative sources of strategic materials. In addition to securing Central Asia, the US has recently also signed rare-earth mineral deals with Japan and Ukraine, reflecting a broader strategy to reduce dependency on China and diversify supply chains.