SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan — Secretary of State Marco Rubio came to Central Asia with a simple message and a lot of company. “There’s no part of the world in which we feel like America and American business should not have a fair shot to compete,” Rubio said Monday. “And that’s what we seek to do.”
Asked what the United States has to offer the five nations of Central Asia, Rubio did not hesitate. “I mean, look, it’s competition. We have products. We have companies. They make things. And we just want fair competition and an opportunity,” he said.
He backed it up. “That’s why we’ve come here with almost 300 American businesses joining us who are looking forward to seeing what opportunities exist,” Rubio said, adding that some of them have already done agreements “that we’ll be announcing a little later.” In a separate clip, he said: “We’ll have those announcements at the end of the forum. I think that’s very positive for both countries.”
Rubio said the trip is not about telling anyone whom to talk to. “This is not about coming here to say, stop talking to somebody else or stop working with some other country,” he said. “This is about ensuring that in every part of the world that is opening its doors to American business and American commerce that we’re available, that we’re showing up and that we’re there.”
He praised Uzbekistan’s rise, saying, “It’s incredible what they’ve achieved in just the last decade in terms of economic growth and prosperity,” and said Washington ignored the region for too long. “Central Asia has just not gotten the level of attention from our policymakers over the last 20 years that it deserves. But that’s changing, that’s why we’re here now,” Rubio said. “This is not the end, this is the beginning.”
It is America First diplomacy in action: open doors, real deals and American companies at the front of the line.
