U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Samarkand for a C5+1 ministerial meeting, the U.S. State Department announced. The trip will run from October 17 to 22. After Uzbekistan, the secretary will head to India, where he will visit Mumbai and Jamnagar.
According to the State Department, Rubio will use his stop in Samarkand to outline how strategic cooperation within the C5+1 format helps build a «more peaceful and prosperous future» for the United States and the countries of Central Asia. He is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with senior officials from all five states in the region: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The department described the trip as «historic» and said the secretary will lead a commercial delegation of more than 200 American company executives. Diplomats say the visit should usher in a «new era» of business cooperation between the United States and Central Asia.
In late September, U.S. Special Envoy for South and Central Asia Sergio Gor spoke about the upcoming visit. At the time, the delegation was said to include more than 100 companies, Fergana reported. The main topics of the talks were expected to be regional economic connectivity, energy security and shared regional challenges. Cooperation on critical minerals and rare earth metals is particularly important for both Washington and Tashkent. In February 2026, Uzbek Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov met with Rubio in Washington, where the two sides signed a memorandum of cooperation on the extraction and processing of such resources.
In April, the U.S.-Uzbekistan Business and Investment Council began work in Washington. Presidents Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Donald Trump agreed to establish it at the C5+1 summit in November 2025.
This will be Rubio's first visit to Uzbekistan, and to Central Asia as a whole, as secretary of state. He previously said he intended to visit all five countries in the region in 2026. So far, however, only the trip to Uzbekistan has been announced.
In India, Rubio will hold talks with officials on strengthening the two countries' strategic partnership and expanding energy cooperation. He will also meet with business representatives. It will be his second official visit to India this year.
