India - Central Asia first Summit Meeting

Tags: National News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the first India Central Asian summit meeting in a virtual mode to commemorate the establishment of 30 years of diplomatic relationship on 27 January 2022.

The meeting saw the participation of the five Presidents of the  Central Asian Republics namely;  Kazakhstan’s Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbekistan’s Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan’s Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan. 

 Speaking on the occasion Prime Minister Modi outlined three main objectives of the summit;

First, the cooperation between India and Central Asia is vital for the security and prosperity of the region. 

Secondly, to set up an effective structure of cooperation between the two for regular interactions at various levels 

Thirdly, to create an ambitious roadmap for cooperation between India and Central Asia.

Important highlights of the meeting:

• The leaders agreed to hold such a summit meeting every two years.
• They also agreed on regular meetings of Foreign Ministers, Trade Ministers, Culture Ministers and Secretaries of the Security Council to prepare the groundwork for the Summit meetings.
• An India-Central Asia Secretariat in New Delhi would be set up to support the new mechanism.

To further cooperation between the two they agreed to:

•  set up  a  Joint Working Groups at senior official level on Afghanistan and use of Chabahar Port of Iran
• To organise Buddhist exhibitions in Central Asian countries
•  To commission  an India-Central Asia dictionary of common words;
•  To hold joint  counter-terrorism exercises; 
• To organise the visit of a 100 member youth delegation annually from Central Asian countries to India.

 The Central Asian Presidents were to be the chief guest at the 73 Republic day celebration 2022 but due to covid pandmeic their visit was cancelled.