WASHINGTON: While the Iran war smoulders, Saudi Arabia fights the Houthi-led Ansarallah forces in Yemen and a new rift opens in US-Ukraine relations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to land on Sunday in Samarkand city of Uzbekistan, a nation far removed from the biggest US foreign policy challenges.
The top US diplomat will meet leaders from the C5+1, a grouping that brings together the United States and the Muslim-majority post-Soviet states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
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 Trump’s predecessors.
Trump hosted C5 leaders at the White House last November, when Kazakhstan reportedly agreed to join the Abraham Accords. He earlier met Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the UN General Assembly.
Top diplomat to meet leaders from the C5+1
Regional politics aside, the trip fits an emerging pattern in which Rubio often visits regions not at the centre of the news cycle, while leaving some more fraught foreign-policy portfolios to other Trump aides, including special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Vice President J.D. Vance.
For instance, Rubio has not visited Kyiv or Moscow since becoming secretary of state. He was not present for talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Florida earlier this month, when US officials pressed Ukraine to stop hitting Russian refineries. Vance, not Rubio, represented the US in Pakistan during peace talks with Iran in April.
Trump administration officials have typically rejected any suggestion that cabinet-level officials should focus their travels on geopolitical capitals and hot spots.
One Central Asian diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said officials in the region are wondering to what extent the US will continue targeting Russian sanctions evasion.
All C5 states, while drawing closer to the United States, 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..
Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2026
