A handful of deals were announced late on November 6 as US President Donald Trump prepared to meet the five presidents of Central Asia in Washington, DC at a “C5+1” summit.

The Trump administration announced new agreements to sell up to 37 Boeing airplanes to airlines in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan’s flag carrier Air Astan, said the US Department of Commerce, intended to purchase up to 15 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. Tajikistan's national carrier Somon Air was planning to buy up to 14 Boeing airplanes including four 787s and 10 737 MAX airplanes, it added, also stating that Uzbekistan Airways would buy eight additional 787s.

The Trump administration further announced that US mining investment firm Cove Capital would develop a large tungsten deposit in Kazakhstan with the Kazakh state mining firm JSC Tau-Ken Samruk. Cove Capital will control 70% of the JV and sales of the metal, according to a document seen by Reuters. Costs to develop the Northern Katpar and Upper Kairakty projects are estimated at $1.1bn, the news agency added.

"This is a generational win for the US and its critical minerals needs," Cove CEO Pini Althaus was reported as saying, adding that Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick personally helped negotiate the deal to prevent Chinese companies from developing the asset.

Prior to the announcement of the tungsten agreement, the press service of the Kazakh presidency announced that Kazakhstan and the US had signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in critical minerals.

An announcement from Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev outlined a $2.5bn investment deal with US agricultural and construction machinery manufacturer John Deere Inc. Prior to that came an announcement from the Kazakh central bank of an agreement struck in Almaty between it and the US-based VISA financial services company to upgrade Kazakhstan’s digital payment systems.

Uzbek President Shavkat Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced the signing of eight deals, ranging across areas including geological surveying for critical minerals, water conservation technologies, soybean purchases, cotton exports and artificial intelligence (AI).

Tajikistan’s official news agency Khovar reported that a US-Tajik business forum held in conjunction with the summit produced “a number of agreements and memorandums on cooperation in transportation, investment, technology exchange, and other economic sectors.” However, no more details were provided.

Following a meeting of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his counterparts from the five Central Asian countries on November 5, Rubio said that he planned to visit all five of the countries on a trip that would be planned for 2026.

Rubio later remarked: “You [the countries of Central Asia] are looking to take the resources – both your people and natural resources that God has blessed your nations with – and turn them into responsible development that allow you to diversify your economies.

“You don’t just want to be a source of energy or a source of minerals; you want to use that responsibly to build out other sectors of your – of your economies so that you provide long-term opportunities for your people and further develop.”

“Our national interests are aligned,” he added.

"This [Central Asia] has just been a very under-explored part of the world, from a US point of view, and vice versa," US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said at a C5+1 business conference event at the Kennedy Center, which included Kazakhstan officials, Reuters reported.

Away from the business side of the summit, Trump announced that Kazakhstan is to join the Abraham Accords on normalising relations between Israel and Muslim-majority nations.

"We will soon announce a Signing Ceremony to make it official, and there are many more Countries trying to join this club of STRENGTH," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Kazakhstan already has full diplomatic relations and economic ties with Israel, thus the move will be seen as largely symbolic.