Rubio travels to Uzbekistan to meet Central Asian leaders

The C5 countries

• Uzbekistan
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Tajikistan
• Turkmenistan

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was due in Samarkand on Oct 18 for the C5+1, which joins the United States with five Central Asian states.

Business executives on the trip

200+ executives

More than 200 business executives travel with him, the State Department said; a Central Asian diplomat said the focus is the region's rare earth minerals.

On Friday, President Donald Trump waived provisions that would have allowed big tariffs on countries buying Russian crude, which experts said could have hit India and Kazakhstan.

India, end of the trip

Rubio then visits Mumbai and Jamnagar in India, where a US official called a trade deal pretty much done; the trip ends Thursday.