First India-Central Asia Dialogue to be held in Uzbekistan
The first India-Central Asia Dialogue will be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on January 12 and 13. The Dialogue will be co-chaired by External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj and the Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, Abdulaziz Kamilov.
The Foreign Ministers of Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan will participate in the event. The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan will participate in the dialogue as a special invitee for the session dedicated to connectivity issues in the region.
Objective of the Dialogue
India and the Central Asian countries are bound together through shared history and cultural linkages. The objectives of the first India-Central Asia Dialogue are:
- To enhance their cooperation in wide-ranging spheres including exploring ways to substantially enhance India’s economic involvement in business and development sector of Central Asia.
- Developing viable connectivity options between India and Afghanistan and Central Asia to further facilitate trade and economic activity in the region.
- Strengthen India’s engagement, including political, economic, development partnership and cultural, with all the Central Asian countries and take it to a new level.
The first India-Central Asia Dialogue aims at taking forward the bilateral relations which have strengthened following the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to all the five Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – in 2015 and the EAM’s tour across the region in August 2018.
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Month: Current Affairs - January, 2019