to Central and South Asia on Saturday on a dealmaking mission to boost commercial ties and gain an edge over Russia and China. With Rubio stepping up foreign travel in the middle of the US midterm campaign to Europe and Latin America, he has largely ceded control of the contentious Iran, Ukraine and Gaza files to President Donald Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Rubio is instead leading a massive delegation of 200 business leaders to Uzbekistan, where on Monday in Samarkand — the emblematic Silk Road city — he will join a C5+1 ministerial with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Rubio called it a strategic visit to build relationships, while senior State Department officials said it shows Washington's goodwill toward a deepening partnership across Central Asia, especially in energy. One official said it was planned for months as an incredible opportunity to bring the US into a vitally important region. Central Asia is as vast as the EU, resource-rich, but with only about 80 million people. In November 2025, Trump welcomed the five leaders to the White House. The former Soviet republics remain linked to Moscow by pipelines, security and migration, but Russian influence has eroded since the Ukraine war, with China reaping the benefits as the main trade partner of all five. Chinese firms have signed deals for Turkmen gas, Kazakh uranium and Tajik rare earths. The US has also made sourcing rare earths and improving its energy mix key foreign policy goals. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, also special envoy for Central and South Asia, has stressed better ties across the region.

After Uzbekistan, Rubio heads to India — Mumbai and Jamnagar in Gujarat, both industrial hubs and port cities — for his second visit this year after New Delhi and Kolkata in May. Officials say Washington is very close to a trade deal with India after months of talks. A provisional pact last February aimed to cut US tariffs, but the Supreme Court striking down many Trump tariffs created uncertainty. Relations were rattled when Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs over Delhi's Russian oil buys, since lifted. In Mumbai and Jamnagar, Rubio will push commercial diplomacy with business leaders, including plans by Reliance Industries, led by Anant Ambani, to finance a Texas refinery. (Bssnews)