The White House's recent summit with Central Asian leaders signals a renewed U.S. effort to compete with Russia and China through trade and critical minerals, but Central Asia's geography, governance and structural dependence on Beijing and Moscow will ultimately limit the impact of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. On Nov. 6, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan at the White House for a C5+1 summit -- the format launched by the Obama Administration in 2015 after Russia's annexation of Crimea the prior year. This was only the second leaders-level C5+1 meeting, and the first ever held at the White House, reflecting Washington's renewed attention on Central Asia since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The summit occurred just after the C5+1 Business Forum, where U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick unveiled a record package of trade and investment agreements across energy,...
