Afghan crisis, regional connectivity to be focus of India-Central Asia dialogue on Sunday

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar hosted a dinner for the visiting foreign ministers a day ahead of the third edition of India's dialogue with five Central Asian countries on Sunday.

New Delhi: The situation in Afghanistan and boosting connectivity and development cooperation are set to be key focus areas of the third edition of India's dialogue with five Central Asian countries on Sunday.

A day ahead of the dialogue, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar hosted a dinner for the visiting foreign ministers. A cultural show was also organised in their honour.

"Hosted the Central Asian Foreign Ministers to a welcome dinner before our Dialogue tomorrow. The cultural show was just one more reminder of our closeness," Jaishankar tweeted.

The dialogue is being attended by foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In the last few years, India has been focusing on expanding overall cooperation with the energy-rich Central Asian countries, considering them to be part of its extended neighbourhood.

The upswing in India's engagement with the region followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's whirlwind tour of the five countries in July 2015 that resulted in the expansion of two-way ties in a range of areas.

The recent developments in Afghanistan reinforced the importance of the Central Asian countries with three of them -- Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- sharing borders with the war-torn nation.

The national security advisors of all the five Central Asian countries attended an India-hosted regional dialogue on Afghanistan on November 10. It was also participated by NSAs of Russia and Iran.

The focus of the dialogue will be to enhance connectivity and development cooperation as well as the unfolding developments in Afghanistan, officials said.

"The ministers are expected to discuss further strengthening of relations between India and Central Asian countries with particular focus on trade, connectivity and development cooperation," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday.

"They will also exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest," he said at a media briefing.

The second meeting of the India-Central Asia dialogue was organised by India in October last year in digital video-conference format.

PTI