Trump Pursues Critical Minerals Deals With Central Asia

Welcome back to World Summary, where we look at the competition that ended Central AsiaImportant minerals, and US contempt Conference of the Parties 30and the main state elections in India.

Fighting on C5

US President Donald Trump prepared to host the leaders of five Central Asian countries at the White House on Thursday, as part of Washington’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its influence in the mineral-rich region. But for the so-called C5 group — made up of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — Thursday’s talks are about maintaining a delicate balance between seeking American investment and not angering Russia and China, which have long held influence in the region.

Welcome back to World Summary, where we look at the competition that ended Central AsiaImportant minerals, and US contempt Conference of the Parties 30and the main state elections in India.

Fighting on C5

US President Donald Trump prepared to host the leaders of five Central Asian countries at the White House on Thursday, as part of Washington’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its influence in the mineral-rich region. But for the so-called C5 group — made up of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — Thursday’s talks are about maintaining a delicate balance between seeking American investment and not angering Russia and China, which have long held influence in the region.

Thursday’s meeting will address bilateral cooperation across a range of sectors, including energy logistics, infrastructure investments, technology transfer, educational exchanges, and water resources management. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is also expected to announce during a meeting with Trump that his country will join the US-brokered Abraham Accords, which will normalize Kazakhstan’s relations with Israel and represent a major win for Trump’s self-proclaimed credentials as a major peacemaker.

However, negotiations on important minerals will be high on the agenda. China’s restrictions on rare earth exports, some of which were temporarily halted during negotiations with the United States last week, as well as Beijing’s overwhelming monopoly on processing vital minerals, have prompted Washington to look for alternative places to buy and process raw materials. However, the latter can be particularly challenging, partly due to the highly polluting environmental impact of metal processing.

“If you’re the United States and you want to compete, you need to find other countries that don’t have strict environmental regulations that are willing to host,” former US Ambassador to Kazakhstan William Courtney told RFE/RL.

A reference to Central Asia, which has a wealth of oil, gas and energy reserves and is also looking to diversify its economic and security partnerships away from Russia and China, especially after Moscow’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which left former Soviet countries concerned for their safety.

During the first six months of Trump’s second term, the White House signed trade agreements with Central Asia totaling $12.4 billion. This week, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was reported to have brokered talks between US firm Cove Kaz Capital Group and Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund to develop two huge deposits in the Central Asian country. The country has access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten, an essential ingredient in the manufacture of weapons and ammunition.

This comes on top of a series of important metals deals in recent weeks that the United States has signed with Australia, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand.

However, competition for Central Asia remains fierce. In June, Chinese President Xi Jinping attended G5 talks in Kazakhstan to boost Central Asia’s participation in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin joined the G5 summit in Tajikistan to strengthen military cooperation. Even the European Union tried to participate in this event by signing a strategic partnership during the summit hosted by Uzbekistan last April, which included an investment program worth up to $13.8 billion.

However, Trump hopes that Thursday’s meeting will overshadow these competing efforts and instead secure closer American relations with Central Asia. However, human rights groups worry that, in doing so, the White House will ignore the widespread abuses that the region’s governments have been accused of committing.

“This summit provides an opportunity – and a test – for the United States to demonstrate its ability to play a positive human rights role and challenge expectations that the summit will reflect a purely transactional approach in the region,” said Ben Linden, Amnesty International USA’s Advocacy Program Director for Europe and Central Asia.

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Noticeable absence. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) kicked off its two-day summit in Brazil on Thursday — with one notable absence. For the first time since the summit began 30 years ago, the United States did not send any senior government officials to represent Washington’s interests. Such disdain represents the Trump administration’s broader disregard for green technology, clean energy, and the threats from climate change.

The United States is the world’s second-largest carbon emitter after China, accounting for more than 10 percent of total global emissions, according to 2023 data. However, under Trump, the White House has abandoned its climate pledges and instead teamed up with other oil-producing countries to oppose major green legislation, such as a global plastics treaty and global tariffs on carbon pollution. In his speech to the UN General Assembly in September, Trump called climate change the world’s “greatest hoax” and praised the use of fossil fuels.

Experts are unsure whether COP30 can work effectively — and create lasting change — without the presence of one of the world’s biggest polluters. The European Union, which is implementing one of the world’s most ambitious emissions reduction policies, is trying to portray itself as a leader in climate talks. But recent infighting and the weakness of the bloc’s reduction target have undermined its influence and put European leaders on shaky ground for the start of the conference.

Moody test. Millions of people in the eastern Indian state of Bihar went to the polls on Thursday to start voting in the largest state elections the country has witnessed this year. The closely watched contest is expected to be a litmus test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, which is struggling to confront the destabilizing nature of Trump’s trade war and other geopolitical challenges.

Bihar has long been described as India’s leading political state, as it is the poorest state in the country and often bears the brunt of economic turmoil and social inequality. More than a third of households in Bihar live on barely more than $2 a day, according to a 2023 state survey.

Since Trump launched his trade war in April, New Delhi has faced high US tariffs along with threats of sanctions on its purchases of Russian oil. Adding to the instability in the country, the Indian army clashed in May with its historic rival, Pakistan, over armed attacks in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir. Thursday’s elections are expected to measure whether voters remain satisfied with Modi’s government or are seeking change. The second round of voting in Bihar is scheduled to take place next Tuesday, and the results are expected by mid-November.

Disagree. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum filed a complaint Wednesday against a man who harassed her and tried to kiss her without consent while she was walking between meetings in Mexico City the day before. According to Sheinbaum, the man appeared intoxicated and was accosted by one of her employees after he touched her. Sheinbaum, like her predecessor, travels with minimal security and is often seen wading through crowds.

“If this happened to the president, where would that leave all the young women in our country?” Sheinbaum said. “No man has the right to exploit a woman’s personal space.” According to Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada, the suspect was arrested overnight and is being held in the Sexual Crimes Investigation Unit.

Sheinbaum also criticized a local newspaper Reforma For publishing pictures of the incident, describing it as “again victimization” and demanding an apology. Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female president, had previously called for making sexual harassment a “criminal offense punishable by law.” Currently, sexual harassment is a crime in half of the Mexican states as well as in Mexico City. Last year, the country recorded 797 femicides, according to Statista, though many advocates say those numbers are likely an undercount.

Odds and Ends

For those still wondering how thieves last month managed to break into the Louvre Museum in Paris in broad daylight, investigators may have more answers. At the time of the robbery, which saw nearly $102 million worth of priceless artifacts stolen, the password for the Louvre’s surveillance system was “Louvre,” according to a museum employee. The FP World Brief writer isn’t sure if this is worse than the “1234” password, but it’s still pretty bad.