India has sought to build the traditional friendly relations with the resource rich Central Asian region through its Connect Central Asia policy in the past decade. The ties gained an added significance after India became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in mid-2018.

Last year India and the Central Asian countries agreed to hold an India-Central Asia Dialogue. The first India-Central Asia Dialogue was held earlier this week in the ancient city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan. The ministerial dialogue was attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and ministers from the five Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan as a special invitee.

The ministers stressed on the ancient civilisational, cultural, trade and people to people links between India and Central Asia. They also reiterated their objective of building friendly and dynamic relations through mutual support and cooperation, and joint solutions to ensure security, stability and sustainable development.

Afghanistan’s participation in the Central Asia Dialogue was hailed by the ministers as lending an important land link between India and the Central Asian countries. It is an important component for regional cooperation, transit of goods and energy. The ministers expressed their support for peace, security and stability of Afghanistan as they called for an inclusive Afghan led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process.

The Central Asian economies are liberalising and opening up in recent years.  Uzbekistan has undertaken major economic reforms and opened up its economy after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over in December 2016 after the demise of Islam Karimov, the long-term Uzbek leader. India’s efforts to engage more closely with the Central Asian region have been hampered by the absence of land connectivity, though the region is a scene of rapid infrastructure development to connect China with Europe. Chinese President Xi Jinping had first announced the Belt and Road Initiative in Kazakhstan. The Central Asian Republics provide a transit route for China to the European markets and also help decrease the congestion in China’s eastern ports.

India’s trade with landlocked Central Asian countries is less than US $2 billion. A land route connecting with the Central Asian countries is of importance for India to access the region, its markets as also its rich natural resources.

The possibility of a land route to the Central Asian region through Afghanistan has opened up with India’s involvement in Iran’s Chabahar port. The trilateral trade and transit agreement between Afghanistan, Iran and India aimed to connect India to Afghanistan.  Addressing the ministerial group, Swaraj spoke of the Chabahar port as a viable and operational trade route, as she invited the Central Asian leaders to participate in a conference on Chabahar to be held in Iran in February. Once operational, the Chabahar route could become the shortest route from India to Central Asia.

The first phase of the Indian financed Shahid Behesti terminal at Chabahar port was inaugurated in December 2017. The trilateral agreement opened a new transit route for Afghanistan to the Persian Gulf. It has lessened Afghanistan’s dependence on Pakistan for its imports and overseas trade. In this period, a major part of Afghanistan cargo has moved onto the Iranian route to Chabahar port and Iran’s busy Bandar Abbas port. 

India joined the Ashgabat Agreement last year, making another connection with the Central Asian Republics.  The Ashgabat agreement is a multimodal transport agreement between Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Oman. It provides an international transport and transit corridor for connectivity in the Eurasian region and transporting goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

India has favoured multiple options of connectivity in the region, including air connectivity. The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a multi-modal network including sea, rail and road route for movement of freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Europe. Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are members of the INSTC. Though there is much work to be done to make the corridor functional, a trial shipment was shipped last year from Mumbai to Russia’s Kaluga region in 23 days. India and Russia use the maritime route for trade and commerce in a journey that lasts about 40 days.

It is estimated that the INSTC would prove to be much shorter and about 30 percent cheaper than existing trade routes. A car rally from Delhi to Moscow and back was held last year that gave a demonstration of the viability of the land route. The vehicles travelled north through Iran to Baku in Azerbaijan to Astrakhan on the river Volga, to Moscow and finally reaching St Petersburg.  

 India has also established air corridors between Indian and Afghan cities, which allow Afghan exporters to transport perishable goods to India. Air corridors with Central Asian countries could also enhance trade and commerce between India and a strategically important region in its extended neighbourhood.