WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump says he will invite Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to next year’s U.S.-hosted Group of 20 summit as the Republican administration seeks to deepen ties with the Central Asian nation.
Trump announced the plan on Tuesday after separate phone calls with Kazakh President Tokayev and Uzbek President Mirziyoyev.
Neither country is a member of the G20, but the host country, which hosts the annual gathering of leaders of major economies, often invites non-G20 members to attend the summit. The 2026 gathering is planned to be held at Trump’s golf club in Doral, Florida, near Miami.
“The relationship with both countries has been outstanding,” Trump said of the calls in a social media post. Trump is currently vacationing at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
The leaders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan visited Washington last month, along with the leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, for talks with Trump.
The U.S. government is increasing its focus on Central Asia, which is rich in mineral reserves and produces about half of the world’s uranium, as it steps up its search for rare earth metals needed in high-tech equipment such as smartphones, electric vehicles and fighter jets.
Central Asia’s key mineral exports have long been tilted toward China and Russia.
During a visit last month, Tokayev announced that his Muslim-majority country would join the Abraham Accords, the Trump administration’s effort to strengthen ties between Israel and Arab and Muslim-majority countries.
The largely symbolic move comes as the Trump administration attempts to revive an initiative that was a signature foreign policy achievement of his first term, when his administration established diplomatic and commercial ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Trump announced last month that he would bar South Africa from participating in next year’s summit at his Miami-area club and would halt all payments and subsidies to South Africa over its treatment of U.S. government representatives at this year’s conference.
Trump chose not to send a U.S. government delegation to this year’s summit hosted by South Africa, saying he was doing so because of the violent persecution of white South Africans in South Africa. South Africa, mired in apartheid for decades, rejected the claim as baseless.