CURRENT AFFAIRS
THE CENTRAL ASIAN DIPLOMACY
The Indian connect with central Asia can be traced back
to 250 BCE when the Mauryan empire had extended its
territory into central Asian province.
Once India started to achieve a steady economic growth the
government decided to spread its wings and started focusing
in central Asia when it brought in the 'Connect Central Asia'
policy. The highlight features of 'Connect Central Asia' policy
Later it was the Kushan empire which tied India and central
Asia under one banner during 3rd century BCE. It was in the included strong political relations, strategic and security co-
same era that the Indian and Indo Greek empires joined into operations and long term partnership in energy and natural
the silk road which further led to not only trade and commerce resources. In the words of Indian strategic expert
between India and central Asia but also cultural exchanges. K.Subramanian, "The Central Asian Republics (CARs) posed
the most excruciating and complex challenges to Indian
These contacts were further strengthened in the medieval
ages with the advent of Islam and later with the establishment diplomacy judge whether by geostrategic compulsions or by
of Muslim rule in India, many of whose rulers had their origins India's energy concerns".
in Central Asia.
A land route to central Asia from India won't be stable for
In the modern era India was in extremely good relations with variety of obvious reasons. so, India has decided to connect
the erstwhile superpower USSR. and the entire central Asia central Asia through a multi-modal transportation project. India
belonged to the Soviet Union, until the disintegration of USSR has developed Chabahar port in Iran. From Iran via
Afghanistan's garland highway to central Asia by road. The
in 1991. This led to the creation of Kazakistan, Kyrgyzstan,
real issue out here is that even though India shares a good
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan which together
relation with Afghanistan, the route may not be reliable and
constitute the modern-day Central asia. Which can be also
safe due to the large presence of non-state actors in there.
considered as India's extended neighbours. But India's
This also one of the major reasons why the proposed oil
connect with central Asia weakened post 1991.
pipeline TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) plan
There are multiple explanations as to why the Indian connect is still in limbo.
with central Asia drifted apart post 1991 but it surely was not
only because of our allegiance to USSR, because India right 1st India- Central Asia Dialogue was held in Samarkand in
Uzbekistan recently. This track 1 diplomacy summit led to the
from its inception was a firm believer in the doctrine of non-
alignment, when it came to international relations. One major creation of a 'Regional Development Group' for better
co-ordination on economic and policy issues. There were also
factor which led to lack of central Asian ties post 1991 was
talks to propose an air corridor for this land locked region.
defiantly the continuous unrest with our neighbours.
India's only foreign military airbase is in Farkhor in Tajikistan
which is operated by Indian air Force and Tajik Air Force. India
Over the past decade the world has realised that central
and Uzbekistan signed a deal for long term supply of uranium.
Asian region is rich in natural resources, also all of these
countries are landlocked. Thus, there is a huge power tussle After Kazakistan, Uzbekistan would be the second central
Asian country to supply uranium to India.
in this region. If India eyes at being global leader one day
then it has to start by being the leader of its subcontinent, that
Good ties with central Asia would also open the gateway for
is, its immediate neighbours as well as its extended
neighbours. This is also the are where China has seemed to connections with the Eurasian region thus helping India
widening its wings even further. the dynamics of this region
ran past India in the last decade.
can be shifted completely if India plays its soft power card,
China has good relations and has also invested in most of the considering the fact that the people of both central Asia and
India are huge followers of Bollywood music and movies while
neighbours of India and they have also invested in
the respective governments are huge opponents of radical
infrastructure in the central Asian republics. This was all
possible with creation of a body known as Shanghai 5, which extremist winds.
currently is known as Shanghai cooperation organization of
which India too is a member.
article by Advait Nambiar