Opening remarks by EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar at the India-Central Asia Dialogue

Good morning.

Distinguished Colleagues, it is my great pleasure to welcome you and your delegations to India for the 4th edition of the India Central Asia Dialogue.

Colleagues, I appreciate that your countries stood by India and condemned the heinous terrorist attack that took place in April in Pahalgam.

India deeply cherishes its millennia old civilizational and cultural ties with Central Asia. These age-old bonds, forged through trade, exchange of ideas, and people-to-people contacts, have strengthened over time, evolving into a partnership defined by shared aspirations, shared opportunities and common challenges.

We have marked three decades of our contemporary diplomatic ties with our Central Asian partners in 2022. We have worked together and laid down the legal and institutional framework which has provided a foundation to further our mutually beneficial cooperation with each other individually as well as collectively.

Our cooperation with Central Asian countries received a quantum boost with Prime Minister Modi’s back-to-back visits to all five Central Asian capitals in July 2015. Trade, economic and investment ties between us have strengthened significantly over the last decade. Today, we are well-connected by multiple direct flights. Our enhanced connectivity facilitates greater two-way tourist flows and businesses. A large number of Indian students pursue higher education in your countries strengthening the bond between us.

India remains a trusted development partner for all of you. Together with ITEC training slots and ICCR scholarships, which are the most well-known forms of our development partnerships, we also have started providing High Impact Community Development Projects as Indian grants for socio-economic development. Such projects have included equipping schools with computers, and providing hospitals with medical equipment.

It is our mutual recognition of the importance of India-Central Asia cooperation that we raised it to the Leaders’ level for the first time as a Virtual Summit in January 2022 which has added more strands to our cooperation. Today Trade Ministers’, Culture Ministers’, NSAs, exchange of Youth Delegations and special training course for diplomats are among the notable features of our relationship.

Colleagues, yesterday we had a fruitful discussion at the India-Central Asia Business Council to remove the impediments and add cooperation in digital technologies, fintech, inter-bank relations, to the existing list of areas so that we can realize the full potential of our economic cooperation.

Both India and our Central Asian partners are committed to advancing this mutually beneficial cooperation across all sectors, particularly trade and investment, defence, agro-processing, textiles, pharmaceuticals, regional connectivity, security, education, culture, people-to-people exchanges, as well as new and emerging technologies.

These areas will be on the agenda of our meeting today. I am sure that these deliberations would help us in forging even closer, deeper, stronger and wider partnership which would serve the interests of the peoples of our countries.

So, I thank you for your attention.