U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE
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Marco Rubio, Secretary of State
Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Registan Square
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to Press
Remarks
October 19, 2026
SECRETARY RUBIO: Ready?
QUESTION: Yes. Mr. Secretary —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Hold on one second. Let me say a few words.
QUESTION: Yes, okay. Sorry, sorry.
SECRETARY RUBIO: First of all, I want to thank the Head of the Presidential Administration for joining us here. She’s fantastic. She is an incredible leader and also an incredible spokesperson for the country. We had a chance to interact now numerous times, and thank you. I told you I would come and here I am.
HEAD OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION MIRZIYOYEVA: Thank you.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Both in this beautiful spot, the historic – this is for centuries a crossroads of trade and commerce. Global trade and commerce came right through here. And this is why we’re here now because American companies – many of them are joining us here today not just to visit here but also as part of the C5+1 Forum that we think is so important. The United States wants to be a strong partner in Central Asia, obviously rooted in this country but also all the neighboring countries who want to do more business and trade with us.
We have an incredible delegation, almost 300 American businesses that are here with us, and the opportunity to sign over, when it’s all said and done, billions of dollars of agreements that will both enrich the countries in the region but also benefit the United States economically. So it’s an honor to be here and an honor to be a part of it. Thank you for welcoming us.
HEAD OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION MIRZIYOYEVA: Thank you. Thank you very much.
SECRETARY RUBIO: I’m so happy to be with you.
HEAD OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION MIRZIYOYEVA: Thank you for choosing Uzbekistan.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Of course.
HEAD OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION MIRZIYOYEVA: Thank you.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you for welcoming us and allowing us to see this incredible place.
HEAD OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION MIRZIYOYEVA: Yes, thank you very much for being with us here. Thank you. It’s important for us.
SECRETARY RUBIO: It’s an honor.
Okay.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I was going to ask you about your impressions here, but you just gave them. So it’s an extraordinary place, I have to say. So straight to substance. What does – China is making big inroads in Central Asia, and including in Uzbekistan. What does the U.S. have to offer specifically to the countries of the C5?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean, look, it’s competition, right? We have products, we have companies; they make things. And we just want fair competition and an opportunity. There’s no part of the world in which we feel like America and American business should not be – have a fair shot to compete, and that’s what we seek to do.
This is not about coming here to say stop talking to somebody else or stop working with some other country. That’s not about that. This is about ensuring that in every part of the world that is opening its doors to American business and American commerce that we’re available, that we’re showing up, and that we’re there. And that’s what this is all about.
I mean, if you look at for a long time people have understood the importance of Central Asia, all five countries, Uzbekistan in particular. You see it. You guys have gone through this. This is a beautiful country. It’s incredible what they have achieved in just the last decade in terms of economic growth and prosperity. And we just want to identify opportunities on things we can work together on, and we’re here to do that, and that’s what we want to do. And that’s not a negative action against any other country. That’s just – I mean, countries want to have as many relationships as possible.
Uzbekistan has been clear they want to be friends to everybody. They want to have a relationship with everybody. They want to have economic relations with everybody. And we are saying that we are interested, and that’s why we’ve come here with almost 300 American businesses joining us who are looking forward to seeing what opportunities exist, and in fact some of whom have already done agreements that we’ll be announcing a little later.
HEAD OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION MIRZIYOYEVA: Yeah.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, on that line, the decades of Cold War era restrictions —
SECRETARY RUBIO: The what?
QUESTION: The decades of Cold War era restrictions, Jackson-Vanik is still in place. Why is it not repealed yet?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, you’ll have to ask Congress. We are in favor of repealing it. There are a number of strong voices in Congress that are in favor of repealing it. I was actually asked that during my confirmation hearing in the Senate, and I said that I was in favor of repealing it, and the administration has asked for that to be done. Congress just hasn’t gotten around to it, but we hope that they will.
QUESTION: Secretary, in terms of geopolitics and the part of the world that we’re in, President Vladimir Putin reportedly has proposed a meeting with President Trump.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Saida, did you leave? (Laughter.) She’s left. She’s got to go work. I understand. Okay, sorry.
QUESTION: President Putin of Russia has reportedly, according to The Wall Street Journal, proposed a meeting with President Trump and with Xi Jinping next month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Is that something you can comment on at all? Is that accurate or is being discussed?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don’t know. I mean, I think there’s been talks of a meeting. I don’t know anything’s been finalized. But the President has been clear he’d like the war in Ukraine and Russia to end. He wants that war to end. He has said that when he was a candidate. He said it never would have happened if he’d been president at the time, but it did happen. And now we’ve done everything we can and will continue to do everything we can to help facilitate the end of that war.
No one is winning that war. People are dying every day. Things are being blown up every day. Things are being destroyed every day. And he’s talked about it. He’s talked about the death toll. If you listen to the President, he repeatedly cites the 25,000 people a month dying in these wars, the amount of destruction that’s occurred, the amount of economic damage that’s occurring.
So as you have seen, we have engaged repeatedly over the last almost two years now to try to bring about or facilitate an end to this war, and I think the President is open to anything that he can do to help bring the war to an end if it’s possible. And we’ll continue to look for opportunities to do that.
So far, obviously, we haven’t made the kind of progress we would like to have made, but it’s not for lack of trying, and the President remains very committed to it. You saw his post overnight, or overnight our time at some point on the East Coast in the United States, where he once again reiterated why it is that he has done the things he’s done with suspending the sanctions for 60 days. It’s because he wants to see if there’s an opportunity for the talks that are going on right now with both Ukraine and Russia to lead to something positive and avoid another disastrous year of war and conflict.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, what evidence do you actually have that President Putin is open to peace talks, to coming to the negotiating table? Because his —
SECRETARY RUBIO: What evidence?
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, this is – I mean, I don’t know. This is not a criminal case. I mean, what this is is about diplomacy, and in diplomacy you continue to try. And sometimes, unfortunately, when these conflicts are the kinds that we’re talking about now, these are complicated, they’re entrenched, in some cases a deadlock, sort of a stagnated conflict in which neither side is making clear victories but both sides are inflicting tremendous damage. We’re just going to keep trying to the extent we can to see if we can facilitate an end to it. We’ll keep testing every opportunity that presents itself.
In the end, the evidence will be whether a deal gets done or not, whether both sides are willing to give in order to end this war. But you just have to keep trying to do it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s the nature of diplomacy.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, Ukraine says last night —
SECRETARY RUBIO: The what?
QUESTION: Ukraine says it did not receive early warning last night before Russian ballistic missiles hit Kyiv. Can you please enlighten us what happened there? And as the nation’s top —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I can’t – I don’t – if it happened last night, I don’t know exactly. I know a few nights ago there was a software problem involving their early warning system that I know CENTCOM – sorry, I know that EUCOM had been involved in looking at, and that’s the report they gave us back. I can’t comment on what happened last night.
QUESTION: But as the nation’s top diplomat, Mr. Secretary, are you concerned that Americans diplomats, Americans in Kyiv, also are at risk?
SECRETARY RUBIO: That what?
QUESTION: Americans are also at risk.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we’re concerned about Americans at risk anywhere in the world. We have a diplomatic presence there and we do – we do meetings on a weekly basis in all of our posts, especially those that are in conflict zones, to determine whether or not we can continue to maintain people there. As of now, we’ve not changed our posture or our footprint in Kyiv. We have our presence there, but of course we’re concerned. We’re always concerned about the safety and security of our diplomats and our facilities.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary —
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, welcome to Uzbekistan, first of all.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.
QUESTION: How do you assess Uzbekistan’s role in the current developments of Central Asia?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think it’s key and a cornerstone. I mean, it’s the most populous country. And you see the – I mean, we’ve seen – I’ve never been here before. I just arrived. But just the incredible – reading up on the incredible economic development, a growth rate now of GDP of almost 8 percent a year. It’s phenomenal and we want – encourage for that trend to continue.
So I think you have tremendous opportunity here. If you can have another decade like you had in the last decade, I think you’ll be in an incredible place. You already are. And I was stunned by the number of tourists that come – stunned meaning surprised that the numbers were that high. I know I inquired about direct flights from the United States. There’s actually talks underway potentially for a direct flight from Miami. I know that there’s one already from different other places.
So we’re always encouraged coming to places like that and seeing a country that emerged, like all of its neighbors, from the Soviet era to where they are today in such a short period of time and the incredible opportunities they have to really build on that and transform the country in an incredibly positive way. And that’s why we’re here. We just want to be a positive part of it, and that’s why we’ve brought all these businesses with us as well, because they want to be a part of it.
QUESTION: Secretary Rubio, what should people in Uzbekistan expect from this visit and also from the delegation of 200 American companies traveling with you?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think we’ll have some concrete deals to announce, meaning companies that are going to be doing business here that are being welcomed here and that are excited about doing business here. So we’ll have those announcements at the end of the forum. I think that’s very positive for both countries.
And I also think that’s just the foundation that we intend to build on. We want to do more. This is not the end. This is the beginning. And so we’re excited about it. This is a part of the world that frankly has not gotten a tremendous – Central Asia has just not gotten the level of attention from our policy makers over the last 20 years that it deserves, but that’s changing. That’s why we’re here now. That’s why we had the meeting with the leaders and the President last year, and that’s why I encourage more congressional delegations to come and visit, and ultimately why I hope to be able to come back as well, and why we wanted to do the C5+1 here in addition to the bilateral visit.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, what are the key issues —
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, in terms of the relationship with Ukraine —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Hold on. What?
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, what are the key issues of today’s topic with your colleague and when the President of United States is planning to visit Central Asia and especially Uzbekistan?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I can’t comment on the President’s future travel plans. I think – I think we would love to see that happen, and we’ve got to work on that in the year to come and see what dates are possible, because I think he would like to come if he can. He has said so. So obviously – but I’m not – I can’t speak about the presidential schedule.
About today it’s the point that I made earlier, and that is we have a lot of bilateral issues to talk about. But ultimately – because I think like every country in the world – Uzbekistan is concerned and looking at what’s going on in other parts of the world and the impact it’s having economically on the global economy. But there is so much positive going on in our bilateral relationship, and really at the cornerstone of it is, if you think about it, it’s a relationship that’s defined not by challenges, not by conflicts, but by opportunity.
This is a place that is growing dramatically and economically. It’s providing incredible opportunities for prosperity for its people. And we have American companies that are interested in being a part of it, and we’re here to explore how we can do more of it. I think that binds our people closer together, our countries closer together. There is nothing that strengthens relationships more than shared prosperity, and that’s what we’re looking to build on, and that’s why we’re here.
MODERATOR: One more, guys.
QUESTION: Secretary, going back to the —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Do you speak the language here? No? Uzbek?
QUESTION: (In Russian.)
SECRETARY RUBIO: What is that, in Russian?
QUESTION: I speak Russian very fluently.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, okay. That’s no longer the official language here, but it’s good. A lot of people speak it. I understand.
QUESTION: That’s true. My Uzbek is not —
SECRETARY RUBIO: All right. Well, next time. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Sir, I’d like to ask you about the relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine in that on Saturday you were asked about Starshield and you mentioned that President Zelenskyy may not know what he’s talking about the way he’s characterized it. President Trump has called for elections in Ukraine. Do you think that the relationship between the two administrations at this point is fundamentally broken? Is there a lack of trust that’s – that developed between the two governments?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, look, on Starshield is something that the Department of War controls, and Ukraine has benefited from it. I think they’d like to expand how it’s being used, and that’s a conversation they’re having with the Department of War on an ongoing basis. They’d like to expand it to be able to conduct attacks beyond Ukrainian territory, and that’s not something I’m going to discuss in a press conference.
As far as the relationship, the relationship – it’s very simple. Our goal there is to end this war. That’s what we want to do. We want the war to end. We see nothing good coming from this war, and we see a lot of downside to it, including the very real risk of escalation and a spread, of this thing spreading into another country because of a failed sabotage attack, because of drones that are hit with electronic warfare and they wander into a neighboring country. We see that every night.
Part of drone defenses is you disorient the drone; and so the drone doesn’t hit its intended target, but it winds up hitting somewhere. And if it’s a neighboring country and a neighboring country gets hit, you can see where these things can escalate. It’s a very dangerous conflict – not just dangerous for Ukraine and Russia but dangerous for the world and for the countries of Europe, especially in Eastern Europe.
So we think there is great benefit to bringing it to an end, and we are doing everything we possibly can to try to bring both sides together. It has not been easy because this is a war that, as I said, is the underlying factors that led to it and that have persisted are not easy ones to address, but we’re going to continue to try. And if we can play a positive role, that really is the point of our relationship is to try to bring this war to an end. That’s what the President wants. The President has said repeatedly he wants this war to end and he’s willing to do whatever he can to try to bring it to an end, even if that means having to nudge both sides to get there.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary —
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary —
MODERATOR: Let’s get going, guys.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, (inaudible) Uzbekistan the U.S. asked for it to diversify critical minerals and strategic supply chains?
SECRETARY RUBIO:
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