Rubio, Uzbekistan's Foreign Minister discuss critical minerals cooperation

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Saidov in Samarkand to discuss deepening strategic ties, including cooperation in critical minerals, infrastructure and space via the C5+1 platform. Uzbekistan, which holds major reserves of copper, uranium and lithium, plans to triple copper output to 500,000 tonnes and raise uranium production to 10,000 tonnes by 2030.