Washington to Host Central Asian Leaders on November 6

On November 6, the five Central Asian presidents will reportedly gather in Washington, D.C. for a summit of the C5+1. Presumably U.S. President Donald Trump will join them. The C5+1 format, launched in 2015 under the Obama administration, marks its 10th anniversary on November 1. This is likely to be the second presidential level summit for the C5+1, after a 2023 gathering with then-U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. And it could be the first time all five Central Asian presidents will meet together with their U.S. counterpart in the U.S. capital. Central Asian presidents rarely get the red carpet treatment in Washington, with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev the only sitting Central Asian president to have been received at the White House for a working visit back in 2018. Last week, when The Diplomat inquired with the U.S. State Department whether there would be a meeting to mark the 10th anniversary of the C5+1, a State Department Official replied: We look forward to recognizing ten years of U.S.-Central Asian partnership through the C5+1 diplomatic platform and enhancing cooperation between our countries. The official added, “We will let you know of any confirmed diplomatic engagements. The news of the C5+1 summit was broken on October 26 in a post to X by the Press Office of the President of Kazakhstan. The post stated that Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had replied positively to Trump regarding his apparent invitation to participate in the Washington summit. “President Tokayev regarded the initiative of the American leader as both timely and important,” the post stated, adding that Tokayev “shares the key principles of President Trump’s domestic and foreign policy, in particular the advocacy of traditional values based on common sense, as well as dedication to safeguarding peace and security.” On October 27, Uzbek and Kyrgyz media confirmed that their presidents would also be making their way to Washington for the November 6 gathering. Tajik outlet Asia-Plus reported on October 27 that “[t]he Tajik President's press service has not yet reported whether Emomali Rahmon has received such an invitation.” Turkmen state media have also not, as of writing, reported on the summit. Earlier, on October 20, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) and Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), the ranking member and chair, respectively, of the South & Central Asia Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, penned a letter urging the Trump administration to “host and personally attend a C5+1 Leaders’ Summit in Washington, D.C. this year.” News of the summit broke as U.S. Special Envoy for South and Central Asia Sergio Gor and and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau were visiting Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Gor, who was born in Soviet Uzbekistan (although for a while he seemed to dodge that question), served as director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, prompting the Washington Post to label him in December 2024 as “maybe the most powerful man you’ve never heard of.” In August, Gor was nominated by Trump to take up the post of ambassador to India (he was confirmed in early October) and also named a special envoy for South and Central Asia. The C5+1 has come to frame much of U.S. engagement with the region. Launched in 2015 with a foreign minister-level summit attended by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on November 1, it was a format run primarily out of the State Department. In dealing with Central Asia collectively, rather than just bilaterally, the U.S. sought to amplify its influence in the region at a time when the war in Afghanistan was drawing down but both Russia and China were becoming more active. The C5+1 fit nicely into the multivector foreign policies of most Central Asian states and dovetailed, especially after the 2016 death of Uzbekistan’s isolationist first President Islam Karimov, with increased commitment to regional cooperation. Many of the foreign ministers’ level meetings, and the one presidential summit to date, had taken place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. But not in 2025. UNGA came and went without a peep about the C5+1. And indeed, until Kazakhstan's presidency broke the news, it wasn't clear that anything would come together to mark the 10th anniversary of the format at all, especially given the ongoing U.S. government shutdown and Trump's known preference for bilateral, rather than multilateral, engagement. That said, if there is any region that reflects Trump's other preferences – for top-down decision-making, cults of personality, and grand structures – it's Central Asia. The odd unveiling of what is, truly, a major milestone for the region in its relationship with the United States underscores the shifting nature of U.S. diplomacy as it is practiced under the Trump administration and the unique opportunities that opens up.