As U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s deliberate journey to Uzbekistan – on the head of a giant delegation of American companies – approaches, as soon as once more Central Asian governments and persons are angling for a presidential go to. Each Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have repeatedly invited Trump to make the trek; he’d be very welcome within the area they usually’re hoping the novelty of being the “first” will get them on the presidential calendar.
In an interview with an Uzbek TV station, U.S. Particular Consultant for World Partnerships Paolo Zampolli, mentioned, “I do know [Trump] desires to come back to Uzbekistan. The president has a particularly busy schedule. However he instructed me about his intention to go to Uzbekistan. I personally am continually selling this situation. So, he will certainly go to Uzbekistan sooner or later. We hope this go to will happen as quickly as doable.”
That’s not precisely a agency dedication from a notoriously fickle administration, regardless of the rabid headlines concerning the feedback.
There was no scarcity of U.S. officers touring to Central Asia because the daybreak of the second Trump presidency. These embrace an October 2025 journey to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Sergio Gor, concurrently the U.S. ambassador to India and likewise particular envoy for South and Central Asian affairs. In February 2026, Gor returned to Central Asia, visiting Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In July 2026, Senator Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana – who co-founded the bipartisan Senate Central Asia Caucus in 2024 – traveled to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan (and likewise Azerbaijan).
U.S. engagement with Central Asia has shifted from Afghanistan – an all-encompassing topic that dominated relations from 2001 to 2021 – to important minerals, an particularly sizzling subject for governments eager on dealmaking.
In November 2025, amid the fanfare of the C5+1 summit in Washington, during which all 5 Central Asian presidents had been welcomed to the White Home for the primary time (though it was not the primary presidential degree C5+1 summit, as some have erroneously reported) – Rubio declared his intention to go to all 5 Central Asian states within the coming 12 months.
“I personally intend to go to within the coming 12 months,” he mentioned throughout a reception after assembly together with his Central Asian counterparts, as reported by Reuters. “All 5,” Rubio added. “So I do know it will most likely be a week-long journey. So we’ve started working on that and make that occur collectively.”
Up to now, the highest-ranking U.S. official to finish what I dubbed the “grand Stan slam” was then-Secretary of State John Kerry in 2015. It was throughout that journey that the C5+1, on the international ministers degree, was launched in Samarkand, a month after a preview occasion on the sidelines of the U.N. Normal Meeting.
Rubio’s personal envisioned “grand Stan slam” has been apparently whittled all the way down to a visit to Samarkand, with a heavy enterprise focus. Based on a September 24 press launch printed by the U.S. embassy in India, and attributed to Gor, Rubio “will lead a historic enterprise delegation of greater than 100 American corporations to Samarkand, Uzbekistan in mid-October to advance the U.S.-Central Asia strategic partnership and strengthen bilateral diplomatic and industrial cooperation.”
The Diplomat has heard rumored dates for the journey, however they’ve but to be confirmed publicly. And that’s of little shock. Not solely is Rubio serving as secretary of state, however he’s additionally nationwide safety adviser – a job he took over on an interim foundation in Could 2025 after Michael Waltz flamed out by inviting a journalist right into a high-level Sign chat. That function was made everlasting on September 22. Rubio’s the second particular person to put on each hats concurrently – the primary was Henry Kissinger beneath Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. All that to say: Rubio is a busy man. The deliberate journey to Samarkand might, frankly talking, be spoiled by any variety of sudden crises.
Apart from Zampolli’s current remark that Trump “desires” to come back to Uzbekistan, there’s been no official phrase on that entrance. Trump is usually mentioned as disliking worldwide journey. Of the three most up-to-date presidents – Barack Obama (2009-2016) Trump 1.0 (2017-2020), and Joe Biden (2021-2024) he’s made the fewest worldwide journeys and visited the fewest international international locations. Obama made a complete of 25 international journeys throughout his first time period, Trump made 19, and Biden 21.
The statistics alone don’t inform the total story. Trump’s presidency ended with the COVID-19 outbreak, and Biden’s started with its lingering impression. Up to now in his second time period, Trump has made 14 international journeys – six in 2025 and eight thus far in 2026. Trump is scheduled, formally, for yet one more worldwide journey this 12 months: from November 16 to 19, to attend the ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit within the Philippines after which to attend the APEC Summit in Shenzhen, China.
The 12 months is drawing to an in depth, quickly. The looming mid-term elections, scheduled for November 3 – and never trying good, per most polls, for the president’s get together – may jerk Trump’s consideration again to the home area, making a late-year junket to Tashkent practically inconceivable and doubtlessly ruining future plans, too.
Trump does have two years left in his time period, so a Central Asia go to could eventuate – he might additionally go to any of the greater than 75 different international locations a U.S. president has by no means traveled to whereas in workplace. Spoilers abound each internationally and domestically that would sprint the best of hopes for a U.S. president to lastly step foot in Central Asia. However hope springs everlasting.