Trump continues rare-earths scramble with Central Asia deals
US President Donald Trump has announced a series of trade and investment agreements focusing on rare-earth minerals with the leaders of Central Asian states. The move comes as Washington aims to expand its engagement in the resource-rich region amid strained trade relations with China.
The agreements were concluded following a summit at the White House on Thursday between Trump and the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The summit focused on critical minerals, energy cooperation, and trade diversification, with Trump emphasizing that Central Asia is “an extremely wealthy region” with vast reserves of uranium, copper, gold and rare earth elements. He said his administration is establishing new partnerships to diversify supply chains and strengthen US access to critical minerals.
The meeting 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 additionally announced 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 a 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 since accelerated efforts to secure alternative sources of strategic materials, as Beijing currently controls about 90% of global rare-earth processing. Aside from China’s neighbors in Central Asia, the US has recently also signed rare-earth mineral deals with Japan and Ukraine.
