WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump has clinched $12 billion in trade deals with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan amid a push to deepen economic ties with the strategic Central Asian region.
Uzbekistan agreed to buy 22 787 airplanes from Chicago-based Boeing for more than $8 billion, Trump said in a September 22 post on Truth Social.
“We will continue to work together on many more items!” Trump said in the post.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan signed an agreement to buy 300 US locomotives as well as other rail equipment from Pennsylvania-based Wabtec Corporation for $4.2 billion. The US Commerce Department described it as the largest rail deal in U.S. history.
“This landmark deal advances US manufacturing jobs and accelerates growth, opportunity, and connectivity in America and Central Asia,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said during a signing ceremony in New York with Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.
Trump earlier in the day spoke by phone with Toqaev, who is in the United States to attend the UN General Assembly.
Trump is seeking to strengthen trade and investment ties with resource-rich Central Asia as he focuses on ending US dependence on China for critical minerals, including rare earths.
During his visit to the UN, Toqaev will meet with the chief executive officers of several US companies. The meeting is being organized by the US Chamber of Commerce, which earlier this month led executives from 25 US companies on a trade mission to Kazakhstan, its largest-ever business delegation to the Central Asian country.
Next month, the Chamber will host its first ever business mission to neighboring Uzbekistan, the largest country in Central Asia by population. Trump earlier this month spoke with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev to discuss investment. In late August he sent Special Envoy for Global Partnerships Paolo Zampolli to Tashkent to meet with Mirziyoev.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are rich in uranium, which fuels nuclear power plants, and rare earths, elements needed to make permanent magnets. China dominates the mining and refining of rare earths and production of magnets, giving it leverage in trade negotiations with the United States.
Trump interest in the region comes as China accelerates investments in Central Asia’s mining industry over the past year. Experts say that Central Asian nations are seeking US investment to counterbalance Chinese influence.
The Trump administration has shown a determination to use economic statecraft tools like Export-Import Bank, the US government’s foreign trade lending arm, and the Development and Financial Corp (DFC), the US foreign investment arm, to back US business deals.
Export-Import Bank supported Wabtec’s Kazakh rail deal with a $400 million loan.
