Foreign Pool Report # 3

Pool entered the East Room for POTUS’s dinner meeting with presidents from five Central Asian countries at 7.23 pm after holding in the Green Room for over 40 minutes. POTUS began speaking first, welcoming the guests from Central Asia to the White House for the working dinner. The pool stayed in the room for about 49 minutes.

IN his welcome remarks, POTUS said one of the key items on their agenda is critical minerals. "In recent weeks, my administration has strengthened American economic security by forging agreements with allies and friends across the world to broaden our critical mineral supply chains."

POTUS said: "I've just completed a series of outstanding bilateral meetings with these leaders in the Oval Office to discuss our ties with this very important part of the universe. We're strengthening our economic partnerships, improving our security cooperation and expanding our overall bonds. Tremendous amounts of trade was done just in the last little while."

Just before dinner, POTUS announced on Truth Social that he held a call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan. “Kazakhstan is the first Country of my Second Term to join the Abraham Accords, the first of many,” POTUS wrote.

Following POTUS's welcome remarks, the presidents of Central Asian countries spoke one by one. POTUS took some questions after that.

(As usual, pls check against official transcripts)

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke first: This summit marks the beginning of a new era of interaction between the United States and Central Asia. Precisely one year ago, you achieved a landslide victory in a historic election that was absolutely clean and fair.

Millions of people in so many countries are so grateful to you, and I am convinced that your wise and bold policy needs to be strongly supported worldwide. Under your presidency, America is ushering in a new golden age.

As President of Peace, you, Mr Trump, brought to an end eight wars just within eight months.

Thus, you have evidently reinforced America's role as a pillar of international stability. The United States is the largest investor, with over $100 billion in our economy as its perpetuum mobile. Our trade turnover has doubled in recent years and is approaching $ 5 billion. We cover almost 25 % of America's domestic uranium demand. Kazakhstan has become home to 600 American companies.

Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev spoke next: Already in Uzbekistan, we call you the President of the world. You've done a lot. You were able to stop eight wars, and I'm sure you can stop the war between Russia and Ukraine. We are very hopeful about that.

Today's summit shows that the United States of America sees Central Asia as a key partner.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev also made a number of proposals.

One: I would like to establish a permanent secretariat and place it based on rotations in different countries of Central Asia.

Two: To establish a Coordination Council on Investments and trade, and to provide for the systemic dialogue between public authorities and companies. We think that the idea of establishing a Central Asian investment partnership would be a good idea.

We are ready to continuously work with the US on establishing common communication and energy projects, and transportation to link Central Asia and Europe.

Three: Applying and using the Trump route plan has been established … plan to invest in program for $34 billion.

FOUR: A landmark Summit and your attitude towards all of us means your great support to us to strengthen Central Asia and to strengthen the partnership between Central Asia and the US. C5 + one have to become an efficient mechanism of our practical partnership. I propose to host our next summit in 2026 in Samarkand to establish this further.

Tajikistan’s president Emomali Rahmon, in his remarks, said President Trump plays “a remarkable and highly commendable role in ensuring peace and stability in conflict-ridden regions around the world, and your peaceful efforts are worthy of praise.”

I have a wide-ranging bilateral cooperation that covers different areas, including trade, the economy, and security. We particularly have an excellent cooperation on counterterrorism, fighting extremism, and drug trafficking.

Over 70 companies with American investment are operating in Tajikistan today, and 93 % of my country is mountainous. And we have an abundance of natural resources, particularly water to hydropower, critical minerals and rare earth materials. Tajikistan is home to 13,000 glaciers, and approximately 60% of the country's water resources originate in Tajikistan and other countries rich in strategically important minerals, including rare-earth minerals and critical materials.

Tajikistan is a member of both the European Union's Critical Raw Materials Club and the United States Minerals Security Partnership Instrument.

Last year, antimony accounted for 97 % of Tajikistan's total exports to the United States. In 2024, Tajikistan produced and exported 17,000 tons of metallic antimony primarily to the United States. In Tajikistan, with American investment by an American company, exemplifies our strong and long-enduring collaboration.

However, there are still many opportunities in terms of trade and investment and we are interested in expanding economic and trade cooperation between our countries. There is a good opportunity to cooperate and create a new generation of sustainable artificial intelligence data centres.

Kyrgyzstan's Sadyr Nurgojo uulu Japarov said Kyrgyzstan values the United States of America as one of the important partners in foreign policy.

During our bilateral meeting, we discussed some actual topics of the Kyrgyz-US relations as well as the strengthening cooperation between the Central Asian countries.

With regard to Kyrgyz American relations, I would like to emphasise four main areas: economy and investment, including tourism, hydropower development, digital economy, artificial intelligence and information technology.

Ensuring peace, security, and stability in this context, I wish to highlight the significant contribution made by President Donald Trump to strengthening global stability and ending conflicts in different parts of the world.

The role of Central Asia in global politics has grown substantially, and major powers have shown increasing interest in cooperation with the region. The C5 + 1 format has become an important platform for advancing political dialogue, and I'm happy about that.

Turkmenistan’s president, Serdar Gurbangulyýewiç Berdimuhamedow, was the last foreign dignitary to speak. Thanking the President for the invitation to attend this C5+1 summit, he said: “We consider that we recognize the good results that made since the development of this format and of course we expand the cooperation in such strategically important areas as security, economy, energy and environment.”

We believe that the results of this summit will lead us to further expansion of cooperation between Central Asia and the United States of America.

Lalit K. Jha (ललित के झा)

Reporting the world’s oldest democracy for the world’s largest democracy

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