In Bishkek, US envoys shadow the SCO summit in challenge on Beijing and Moscow’s turf

As China and Russia rallied dozens of countries in Bishkek to shape a multipolar world order, Washington’s envoys were splitting the spotlight by meeting several Central Asian presidents in the Kyrgyz capital this week.
The manoeuvring showed that the US was likely to continue its outreach to the region and seek to blunt Beijing’s influence, but it would be “unrealistic” for Washington to force Central Asian countries to choose sides, according to a leading Chinese analyst.
US Senator Steve Daines and Sergio Gor, America’s special envoy for South and Central Asia, met Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov, Tajikistan’s Emomali Rahmon and Uzbekistan’s Shavkat Mirziyoyev separately in Bishkek on Monday.
The US diplomatic duo’s exchanges with the three leaders took place as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were in town for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s annual summit.

The summit brought together the three Central Asian presidents alongside other notable leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Xi met with Japarov and Mirziyoyev on Monday, while Putin held talks with his Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Tajik counterparts on Monday and Tuesday.
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan are among the SCO’s founding members.
The SCO has drawn greater global attention, as some view it as a vehicle in which China and Russia can pool their influence to compete with the US in international politics, or as an alternative diplomatic space outside Washington-led institutions.
As former Soviet republics, the five Central Asian states – including Turkmenistan – have long been regarded as Moscow’s backyard. Beijing’s footprint there has also expanded in recent years with deeper and broader economic ties.
Washington has placed higher emphasis on the region through the “C5+1” framework, referring to the Central Asian countries and the US.
In February, Gor told a forum in Bishkek that Central Asia was an area that the administration of US President Donald Trump had “prioritised”.
Once the main stage of the “Great Game” between the British and Russian empires more than a century ago, Central Asia’s geopolitical importance has regained prominence under the Sino-US strategic competition, particularly as artificial intelligence and semiconductors have emerged as points of contention.
Washington has sought to build a critical minerals supply chain beyond China, while Central Asia has vast potential in tungsten, uranium, antimony, molybdenum and rare earths as well as proximity to the Trans-Caspian corridor connecting Europe.

Given the Central Asia countries’ relative wealth of rare earths and critical minerals, the Trump administration has attached great importance to cooperating with them, according to Wu Xinbo, who heads Fudan University’s Institute of International Studies in Shanghai.
“I think the US will continue to maintain its economic and diplomatic engagement in Central Asia,” Wu said.
Washington’s push could effectively amount to vying with China and Russia for influence in the region and countering Beijing’s efforts to develop economic and trade relations with the neighbours, he added.
According to official statements from the Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek governments, their leaders’ talks with Daines and Gor all stressed the importance of the C5+1 platform.
The discussions involving the two senior US government officials with Mirziyoyev and Rahmon each covered energy and critical minerals, while the meeting with the Uzbek president also touched on AI.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Daines said he had visited Kazakhstan, adding that he “always appreciates seeing the positive impacts of trade and investment between our two nations”.
Gor wrote separately on Tuesday that he had had a “very insightful” conversation with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, saying: “Commercial diplomacy between our two countries is at record levels and growing.”
Still, Central Asian states have appeared to pursue a balanced foreign policy approach between China, the US and Russia, establishing C5+ formats with other international players such as the European Union and Japan.
As the fierce contest between China and the US continues on AI, Kazakhstan is now the only country to have joined both the Beijing-backed World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation and the Washington-led supply-chain initiative Pax Silica.

Uzbekistan recently sought to follow suit. But Washington has reportedly warned Pax Silica members that they could be excluded from the coalition if they also sign up for Beijing’s competing mechanism.
According to Wu, the warning made it clear that Washington wanted to force some countries to choose between China and the US.
“But personally, I think that the odds [of reaching that point] are not high,” he said. “Central Asia’s economic and geopolitical ties with China far exceed those with the US.
“In the long run, I think it is an unrealistic goal for the US to try to counter China and Russia in this region.”
Daines’ Central Asia trip came days after his latest visit to China, during which the close Trump ally toured several Chinese technology companies in the countdown to of Xi’s planned summit with Trump in Washington.
Wu described the Montana Republican’s trips as more of a personal itinerary.
He noted that Daines was not running in the US midterm elections in November. His Senate term is set to expire in January next year.
“I don’t think his visit to China this time is mainly about playing the role of a messenger,” Wu added.