Rubio's trip to Uzbekistan underscores Central Asia's hunt for partners

Can the United States reassert its influence in Central Asia with a pragmatic and transactional approach?

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives in Samarkand, the legendary Silk Road city in what is now central Uzbekistan, for talks with key regional ministers.

The C5+1 - Central Asia plus the US - meeting from Saturday to Tuesday heralds Washington's new approach to the former Soviet region - pragmatic, purely transactional and devoid of rhetoric about democratization and human rights.

At the dawn of Central Asian independence, Americans were showing up, bearing gifts—and giving speeches—in the predominantly Muslim region, strung strategically between Russia, China, and Iran.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, amid economic decline, unemployment, and poverty in the region, American and European diplomats and businessmen were seen as brave new world ambassadors of flourishing capitalism.

They wanted reform – and not just economic reform.

Western diplomats made sure that the former communist regimes that became the new regional leaders understood that they would receive investments, technology and international recognition only in exchange for abandoning Soviet-era totalitarian ways of governing and building the economy.

The West organized educational meetings and workshops on human rights, democracy and decentralization of government and sent thousands of students and officials to Western schools.

And the West has accused the region's leaders of losing their moral compass and threatened sanctions when they began amending their country's constitutions to extend the constitution. During presidential terms, they appoint family members and friends to key government jobs and help them build business empires that often compete with Western investors.

"When the West started moralizing them, teaching them democracy, human rights, they immediately turned to China or Russia," Galia Ibragimova, an Uzbekistan-born regional expert based in Moldova, told Al Jazeera.

Uzbekistan, the most populous country in the region with 37 million people, provides an excellent example.

Islam Karimov, the country's iron-fisted president, was the first former Soviet leader to allow the construction of a US military base on his soil in 2001.

But four years later, it was abandoned after Washington condemned the brutal suppression of a popular uprising in the eastern city of Andijan that killed hundreds of unarmed civilians.

In 2005, a leaked US diplomatic cable identified Karimov's daughter, Glenara, as a "robber baron" who took over lucrative businesses by force and was recognized as her father's successor.

Observers say the tables have turned on moralizing and rhetoric after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Moscow still has a lot of soft power in Central Asia - from movies and pop music to theater festivals and propaganda TV shows that constantly lie about the war.

The Kremlin also uses its economic clout to promote an imperialist concept of a "Russian world," where the region is seen as Moscow's "near outside," and its pre-Russian heritage is dismissed as backward and insignificant.

In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Kazakhstan "never had a state," and his ideological allies repeatedly threatened to annex the Russian-speaking north.

This year, Kazakhstan began extraditing Kremlin critics and supplying gas to Russia amid Ukrainian drone attacks on the country's oil refineries.

In January, Kremlin envoy Vladimir Solovyov said Moscow should launch a "special military operation" in Central Asia and Armenia - reserved for the war in Ukraine.

Criticisms followed from minor political figures – but no rebuke from the halls of real power.

Meanwhile, migrant laborers from Central Asia have been tricked or forced to sign up en masse to fight in Ukraine, while Moscow uses Central Asian companies to import microchips, communications equipment and machine tools to build drones and missiles.

"These days, the United States and Russia have changed their roles. Today, it is Russia that started to build relations through moralization," said Ibragimova, an expert on the region.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump's administration has abandoned its pro-democracy stance and is now advocating a utilitarian and transactional approach to foreign policy.

"Under Trump, America's policy in Central Asia is all about 'just trade and nothing else,' without bothering about human rights and reforms," Ibragimova said. They are satisfied with everything.

Earlier this month, Trump welcomed Saida Mirziyeva, the daughter of Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

A year earlier, Mirziyoyev pledged to invest $100 billion in the US economy, buy Boeing planes and even US-made cotton, even though Uzbekistan is one of the world's largest cotton producers.

Washington has not said a word about the crackdown on Mirziyoyev's critics or his daughter's growing domestic influence.

After ignoring Central Asia during Trump's first term, the White House wants to regain its presence.

"These interests are mainly geopolitical and military-strategic, given the region's position in the area of interests of Russia and China," Alishir Ilkhamov, head of the London-based Central Asia think tank, told Al Jazeera.

"In the future, Washington apparently wants to have a military base here as a deterrent against China," he said.

Economic interests appear to be focused on rare minerals – vital to the production of a range of technologies – and other critical elements, particularly as China uses them as a political lever in its relationship with Washington.

The reserves are abundant, but it requires development, technology and investment.

Meanwhile, the White House shows little interest in human rights abuses in Central Asia, such as jailing political opponents and independent journalists.

"Unfortunately, interest in these issues is not on Rubio's agenda, because since Trump returned to the White House, these problems have disappeared from the priorities of American foreign policy," Ilkhamov said.

A Norwegian human rights defender echoes his concerns

"There are disturbing similarities between Trump's worldview and established authoritarian regimes like Tajikistan and Turkmenistan," Ivar Dale, senior policy adviser at Norway's Helsinki Committee, a human rights watchdog, told Al Jazeera.

"However, Marco Rubio probably has a better understanding of Central Asia and the challenges there than [Vice President] JD Vance and [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth," he said.

If the C5+1 format is to be taken seriously in the future, he said, it "needs to bring back the focus [on human rights]".