Trade, connectivity, technology, development cooperation and regional security will be the key areas of focus at the fourth edition of India-Central Asia Dialogue in New Delhi on Friday. The Dialogue was launched in Samarkand in January 2019.
According to an Indian brief released ahead of the India-Central Asia Dialogue, lack of overland connectivity between the two regions remains a major impediment to trade, which was only $1.2 billion in 2024-25 FY. In 2019-20, this trade figure was around $3 billion.
“To improve connectivity between India and the region, India has invited the Central Asian countries to be part of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and the Chabahar port development,” it said.
It identified lack of overland connectivity as a "major impediment" in boosting trade between India and Central Asia.
Further, New Delhi has said that the second edition of the India-Central Asia Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on Chabahar will take place in coming weeks.
The top diplomats from Central Asia, which India sees as part of its "Extended Neighbourhood", are also scheduled to attend the India-Central Asia Business Council co-hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Federation of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in New Delhi on Thursday evening.
The India-Central Asia Business Council was set-up in February 2020. It has identified agriculture, energy, textiles, pharmaceuticals, education, IT, business process outsourcing (BPO), and infrastructure as key areas of cooperation, according to an official document.
Development cooperation and defence are other growing areas of cooperation between India and the Central Asian nations.
India has been assisting the CACs in developmental, capacity-building and human resource development (HRD) projects since their independence, having extended over 8,000 scholarships from professionals and students of these nations.
"India’s major grant projects include Mountain Bio-medical Research Center in the Kyrgyz Republic, setting up of Modern Engineering Workshop, Computer Labs in 37 schools and renovation of Varzob-1 Hydro Power Plant in Tajikistan, Entrepreneurship Development Center in Uzbekistan and an Industrial Training Center in Turkmenistan," an Indian brief said.
Besides training of Central Asian security personnel in India, New Delhi also holds annual military drills with three Central Asian nations - "KazInd” with Kazakhstan, “Khanjar” with Kyrgyzstan and “Dustlik” with Uzbekistan.
Diplomatic ties between India and Central Asia have been on the upswing since the inaugural Summit hosted virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2022, which culminated in the 'Delhi Declaration'.
At the inaugural Summit, the leaderships of India and Central Asian nations decided to hold regular meetings of foreign, trade and cultural ministers as well as the National Security Advisors (NSAs). The other key outcome on the Summit was the creation of the joint working groups on Afghanistan and Chabahar, the Indian document outlined.