U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead a delegation of executives from more than 200 American businesses to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for a meeting with Central Asia’s five foreign ministers on October 17. This C5+1 visit gives Washington a rare opportunity to press the region, and more specifically Uzbekistan, for long-awaited institutional reforms and the release of political prisoners in exchange for American investment––an opportunity that may only come once. And if Rubio believes, as he often states about Cuba, that individuals should not be imprisoned for the “simple sin of asking for basic rights, opportunity, and dignity” and the United States should not seriously engage with regimes that hold political prisoners, then he cannot abandon those principles here. The White House must seize its chance to secure the release of political prisoners in Uzbekistan while it has leverage. Otherwise, giving away for free what someone would pay for is just a bad deal.
This trip is Rubio’s first visit to the region as secretary, and it’s a business trip as much as a diplomatic one. It builds on the earlier C5+1 Washington summit in 2025, when Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced $25 billion in commercial deals with countries in the region, with hundreds of billions more in potential future agreements. The United States seeks access to Uzbekistan’s vast supply of minerals and rare earths, along with other possible deals around aviation and agriculture. Uzbekistan, for its part, is clearly interested in expanding trade and commercial ties with the United States. Today, its foreign trade is mostly concentrated in China and Russia, giving Moscow and Beijing clear leverage over Tashkent.
