Central Asian Presidents to be chief guests at Republic Day parade

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20

India’s political and economic ties with the resource-rich Central Asia are set to intensify as all its five Presidents are likely to attend this year’s Republic Day parade. On the security side, Moscow is likely to hold the next meeting of NSAs which will be attended by Ajit Doval and his five Central Asian counterparts.

The announcement about the presence of the five Central Asian Presidents is likely to come later in the day on Monday when the visiting Foreign Ministers call on PM Narendra Modi. The only Central Asian President to have graced the Republic Day celebrations so far was the now-retired Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan.

Besides the sustained engagement with the Central Asian countries, India’s concomitant plan is to open up an alternative transport artery via Iran for these double landlocked countries.

At their third meeting on Sunday, the five Central Asian Foreign Ministers along with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar resolved to take their ties to the “next level” in areas of commerce, connectivity, defence and counterterrorism.

Significantly, the Central Asian ministers were not shy in endorsing some key principles of transnational connectivity routes even though these could be interpreted as similar to what India says should be there in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In this respect, the joint statement at the end of the meeting said connectivity initiatives are to be based on transparency, broad participation, local priorities, financial sustainability and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Central Asian Foreign Ministers were also unequivocal on terrorism as all of them, like India, have in the past battled violence and radicalism from Islamist extremists. The joint statement “condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and reiterated that providing safe havens, using terrorist proxies for cross-border terrorism and terror financing went against the basic principles of humanity and international relations”.

They also wanted perpetrators to be held accountable and brought to justice in accordance with principle of “extradite or prosecute”.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in his opening remarks said New Delhi is pleased at the state of the bilateral relations with Central Asia but knows that the potential is very much more. The Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan also delivered their remarks.

The ministers felt interaction in defence and security was an important element of India-Central Asia cooperation and resolved to regularly hold consultations between their NSAs on terrorism and other emerging security challenges in the region.

They decided to continue providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and spoke against the country’s being used for planning terrorist acts and called for concerted action against all terrorist groups.  They also sought an inclusive government, central role of the UN in providing humanitarian assistance and preserving the rights of women, children and other national ethnic groups.

It was also decided to jointly celebrate the 30th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between India and Central Asia.

The two sides also touched on utilising India’s $ 1 billionn line of credit for infrastructure development projects while Turkmenistan stressed on the importance of the TAPI gas pipeline project.