India has invited heads of five central Asian states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as joint chief gues...
India has invited heads of five central Asian states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as joint chief guests at Republic Day celebrations 2022. This step will give a very strong impetus to bilateral ties between India and CARs(Central Asian Republics) it will not only enhance India and central Asian countries relations but also be very important strategically and politically, particularly when India mostly neglected this region for almost 25 years after these countries independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. India played a very superficial role in Central Asia geopolitics as powers like Russia, China, Iran and turkey are big actors in the region.
In 2012 Indian government introduced the Connect central Asia policy intended to expand cooperation in various realms like security, science and technology, educational exchange, infrastructural development with the CARs.PM Modi also visited these five central Asian countries in 2015 and Since then India and Central Asian Republics cooperation has been enhanced dynamically in various sectors like pharmaceuticals, agricultural products, food processing, energy and chemicals etc.
India maintains regular communication with CARs through various forums like CICA(Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures) and SCO(Shanghai Cooperation Organization) Last month India hosted a third India-central Asia dialogue which was attended by foreign ministers of five CARs in New Delhi.
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These countries are also very important strategically especially after the Taliban seized Kabul as the central Asian countries are next-door neighbours, hence vulnerable to terrorism, radical Islam, Arms & drug trafficking from Afghanistan, So India is constantly trying to expand strategic partnership with Central Asian countries to counter the challenges posed by Taliban and to maintain peace and stability in the region. EAM Dr S Jaishankar has already visited the region thrice since the Afghanistan political crisis. Additionally, National Security Advisors from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan had also attended the Delhi regional security dialogue that India had hosted in November on the situation in Afghanistan.
Central Asian countries hold a very strategic location in Eurasia and are endowed with abundant resources for instance Kazakhstan is rich in petroleum, natural gas, and uranium, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have enormous hydel resources, Turkmenistan has the fourth-largest gas reserve in the world as India is an energy deficit country and imports a large share of energy requirements from west Asian countries like Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia etc. So CARs can play important role in supplying energy to India.
India was not able to make its strong foothold in central Asia due to geographical constraints as All of these countries are landlocked countries and does not share a border with India which creates impediment in connectivity and trade due to that India's total trade with CARs stands only for $1 billion on the contrary china has $100 billion trade with CARs and hugely invested in infrastructure, and security in CARs.
To overcome this geographical connectivity hindrance India and central Asian countries working on projects like International North-South Transport Corridor(INSTC) a 7,200-km-long corridor from India, Iran, Azerbaijan & Russia and the TAPI natural gas pipeline project(India-Pakistan-Afghanistan- Turkmenistan). India is also developing the chabahar port in Iran to supply its products through land routes it will lead to cutting down the transportation cost by a huge margin and improving trade connectivity between central Asia and India.
Central Asian countries are also very willing to expand their partnership with India as They're also gradually trying to diversify their economy and their economic linkages with other countries to overcome the interdependence on Russia and China.
India as an extended neighbour of CARs and interest on both sides have huge possibilities for cooperation between Central Asia and India in the field of security, energy, defence seems to be very important. Peace and stability in CARs and Afghanistan seem to be the most crucial factor for India's security.
