Daines is making the trips in his capacity as a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, and his travel to the region predates Trump’s second term. Last year, Daines shuttled to Central Asia twice to build trade relations with the region’s leaders.

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But Daines, a pro-Trump Republican, has also made a point to work hand in hand with the new administration and has been part of its early diplomatic breakthroughs. In May, he visited the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan with members of Trump’s team, ultimately helping to broker a peace agreement that ended decades of conflict.

For his next visit to China, slated for late March or early April, Daines said he would travel to two or three cities with David Perdue, a former Senate colleague Trump tapped to be his ambassador to Beijing.

“When I take these trips, I want to do my best to remain aligned with their objectives,” Daines said of the administration. “I realize I’m in the Senate. That’s Article One. The presidency is Article Two. But we’re on the same team. We want to make sure we’re complementing one another’s efforts.”

This past week, that coordination landed Daines at the table with Trump and the Central Asian leaders he visited in 2024. They were invited to the White House to celebrate 10 years of improved diplomatic relations with the United States, and Daines was tapped as one of the keynote speakers for their business summit.

In the Senate, Daines complemented that milestone with a bill to repeal Soviet-era trade restrictions on Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other Central Asian countries, a push he says has been received positively by the administration. 

“I flagged this for Secretary Rubio and the administration to get their support, and they’re out front now saying, ‘Let’s get this done,’ which is great,” said Daines, adding that Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, has also been a “great partner” on the legislation. “So, I think we’ve got a clear shot here to actually get this done sooner versus later.”

Daines’s diplomacy is not limited to Asia — he said he made trips to Argentina and Brazil last year and, as part of his Foreign Relations portfolio, chairs a subcommittee focused on Europe and NATO. Still, Daines has long taken an interest in the region.

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Before he was a lawmaker, Daines helped corporations expand into China and, while working for Procter and Gamble, moved his family there for six years.

He also engaged in the same sort of shuttle diplomacy to Beijing during Trump’s first term, helping lay the groundwork for trade talks. In total, Daines has made six trips to China since becoming a senator in 2015 and brought business executives with him for his March visit, where he met with the Chinese premier.

“Little did I know that that background of being involved in global businesses would be very useful and helpful when I came to U.S. Senate,” Daines said.

Daines’s travel to Asia comes at a critical moment for Far East relations. Not only is Trump trying to extract meaningful concessions from President Xi Jinping with his tariff agenda, but the White House’s efforts in Central Asia reflect an attempt to diminish Chinese and Russian influence in the region.

In particular, the administration sees the peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, signed in August, as unlocking a “road” to Central Asia and its vast reserves of critical minerals and natural gas.

“Basically, the Russians have had their way and have had a huge influence in the region. And, of course, the Chinese have growing influence in the region, and the U.S. has, in many ways, just been absent in this,” said Daines.

“I was the first U.S. senator to get into, for example, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan in 13 years,” Daines added. “So, there’s really been a significant lack of engagement by U.S. senators in this very strategic part of the world.”

The trade turbulence with China has forced the administration to consider a bailout for American farmers, who have been hurt by China’s decision to suspend soybean imports, and has stoked anxiety on Capitol Hill, particularly among lawmakers representing agriculture states.

But Daines, like most Republicans, is giving the administration space to break through the impasse and pushed aside Democratic criticism that Trump has not made meaningful progress with China despite a recent thawing of tensions.

After a summit in South Korea last month, Trump announced that he would travel to China next April, with tentative plans for Xi to then visit the U.S.

“I think we’re well beyond square one,” Daines said. “It takes time, and I know there was some frustrations with some about the initial approach, but we’ve got to give this administration time to land these deals.”

Daines’s alignment with Trump goes beyond the foreign policy space. As chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee last cycle, he is credited with helping keep Trump and Senate leadership on the same page in 2024, when Republicans picked up four seats and retook the majority.

He was the first member of that leadership team to endorse Trump’s comeback bid for the White House.

Trump has poached other Senate allies for administration posts, including Marco Rubio to lead the State Department. He also plucked ex-Rep. Mike Waltz to serve as his national security adviser and then ambassador to the United Nations.

But Daines said he is happy in the Senate and had not given much thought to a future administration role should Trump ask. In addition to Montana’s senior senator, Daines is an adviser to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and has spots on the Finance, Energy, and Indian Affairs committees.

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“Well, foreign policy, it’s interesting. I enjoy it, and it’s been part of my life,” Daines said. “But I haven’t really given that thought, because you get to do so much on foreign policy in the U.S. Senate. So the answer is, not really.”

Daines planned to fly to India this week, hoping to convince government officials to open up their agriculture markets to pulse crops produced in Montana, but said he expected that trip would be “preempted” due to the government shutdown.