Scramble for Central Asia: Why the US Is Pushing Normalization and Resource Extraction From Kazakhstan

By Julia Kassem – Nov 8, 2025

Trump’s November 6 summit with Central Asian leaders included several deals. The US President announced a $35 billion investment by Uzbekistan into ‘key American industries’ – though this wasn’t confirmed by either government, but did include investments in “geological surveying for critical minerals, water conservation technologies, soybean purchases, cotton exports and artificial intelligence.”

His meeting with Kazakhstan culminated in the signing of 29 bilateral agreements, valued at approximately $17 billion, including $1.1 billion in Tungsten exploration.

Nestled between Russia, China, and Iran, Central Asia is at the crossroads of Eurasian civilizations, a region where the Silk Road served as a passageway between East and West. Its cultural and social attributes pay homage to Russian, Chinese, Persian, and Turkish influence at various points in time, and its geography – as well as its mineral wealth – draws the interest of the world’s superpowers.

The US convened this meeting as it rushed to do damage control over the impact of Trump tariffs, which were recently rolled back amid the US president’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Nonetheless, amidst an environment of increased competition and tension imposed by Washington and noted in Beijing, the two sides are preparing for war and trade war alike.

The most critical part of Trump’s trade war was waged earlier this year. In turn, China has imposed export controls on its rare earth materials. China supplies 90% of the world’s rare earths and was 70% of the US’s supply in 2020 and 2023, making it a critical supplier for years.

Rare earths power much of the world’s technology, including the US. In doing so, they also power the US’s war machine, which took a big hit with Chinese export controls.

A report from the US think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) last month detailed that newly-implemented Chinese measures – requiring Chinese government approval to sell items with rare earths – will deny many US military companies material used to make F-35 fighter jets, nuclear attack submarines (which, for at years have been retiring faster than they’re being produced), Tomahawk missiles, radar systems, Predator UAVs and smart bombs by December 1, 2025, when export lisences will start to be officially denied.

This comes as China is already outpacing the US in its production scale; in 2022, it was estimated that Beijing was acquiring high-end weapons and their systems 5 to 6 times faster than Washington.

So while Trump projects triumph on TruthSocial, it’s clear that the US turning to Central Asia in a hasty and desperate scramble to replace and grab hold on an alternative supply of these resources – Kazakhstan alone boasts 43% of the world’s uranium, and Central Asia as a whole holds 39% of global manganese, 30% of global chromium, 20% of the world’s lead, 13% of its zinc, and 9% of titanium (critical for jet engines and fighter jet air frames).

But will it hold? Can the US, in turn, really project itself as a credible alternative to China in infrastructure development for these countries – as the quid pro quo in these deals outlines? Much of China’s effectiveness in projecting soft power in the Global South and so-called ‘developing’ countries in recent years has come from its successful and speedy infrastructure construction. The US, to the contrary, cannot even construct infrastructure in its own country. Soft power that relies on propaganda, deception, illusions, and false narratives no longer cuts it or convinces the world.

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While on the topic of the US’s war machine and diplomacy, the US also sought guarantees from Kazakhstan to join the “Abraham Accords.” Again, while being lauded as another diplomatic ‘victory’ by Trump, it is a question of just how much this can even be considered a tactical or symbolic victory. Kazakhstan has had relations with Israel and has recognized the Zionist entity since its 1991 independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The purpose of the Abraham Accords was to get Arab Muslim regional nations on board with normalization with Israel to isolate the Islamic Republic of Iran and extinguish the Palestinian cause. These were Arab countries that, while on paper not recognizing Israel, were cooperating with Tel Aviv due to their shared political and material connection as US compradors and vassal states.

In the two years after Al-Aqsa Flood and nearly one year into his second term, Trump could not find one Arab or close regional country to sign onto the Abraham Accords. Even Saudi Arabia – which was at the verge of normalization in September 2023 – is now refusing to recognize Israel ‘until an independent Palestinian state is first established.’ While Riyadh’s actions – in support of the US and Israel in shooting down Yemeni missiles – speak louder than words, its hesitancy to fully jump aboard open normalization has marked a victory in one of Al-Aqsa Flood’s original objectives: to break not only “Israel’s” illusion of security, but of the trajectory of Arab state normalization.

Hamas released a statement condemning Almaty’s position in making overtures to support the Accords, as it is a betrayal of the unified Arab and Muslim ‘ummah’s religious and political obligation to reject the occupation, something the resistance group has tried to mobilize post Al-Aqsa Flood. Trump is using Kazakhstan, in a region and amidst nations perceived by the US as having the least affinity, even at the symbolic or rhetorical level, for the Palestinian cause amongst Muslim countries, as a springboard to push Saudi Arabia and other key regional Arab states to seal the deal on normalization and win regional consent in extinguishing any prospect of Palestinian sovereignty. It is also expected that Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, which conveniently border Iran, will be next. And he’s on a tight deadline – the topic is likely to be a center of discussion ahead of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s trip to Washington on November 18. In February, Trump even lied and claimed Riyadh had dropped its demand during remarks at a White House meeting with Netanyahu sitting by his side, a statement even Riyadh had to correct.

In turn, Kazakhstan is seeking to boost its favorability with the US after enjoying a considerable upturn in foreign direct investment – enjoying 63% of Central Asia’s total FDI – at $10 billion in the first half of the year, with 80% of infrastructure projects above $1 billion in landlocked countries taking place there.

As the US fearmongers about Iran and Russian ‘influence’ being in their ‘backyard’ in sabre-rattling and beating the drums of war against Venezuela, they also are working their way onto the Iranian, Chinese and Russian doorstep, with the “Abraham Accords” possibly transforming themselves into a “moderate” (read: compliant) Muslim NATO right on Tehran’s border.

(Vox Ummah)