Biden's Central Asia Meeting Demonstrates the Region's Growing Importance

A meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Central Asian leaders does not portend a significant deepening of U.S. engagement with the region, but it will give regional leaders additional leverage in their struggle to avoid overreliance on Russia and China. On Sept. 20, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted the first-ever heads of state summit between the United States and Central Asia's five countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), a cooperation format known as the C5+1. The C5+1 began as an annual foreign ministers format meeting in 2015, and the 2023 meeting was the first involving presidents. Biden described the meeting as "a historic moment, building on years of close cooperation" and said the "shared commitment to sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity" would remain the cornerstone of their cooperation. Biden proposed a C5+1 Critical Minerals Dialogue to harness the region's abundant mineral resources and promote the security of critical mineral supply...