New Delhi: India will host the first India-Central Asia Summit with the participation of the Presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, in a virtual format tomorrow, 27 January 2022. From New Delhi’s perspective, the summit is symbolic of the importance attached by the Leaders of India and the Central Asian countries to a comprehensive and enduring India-Central Asia partnership. Moreover, a summit-level meeting would provide an opportunity to shore up its ties and reinforce trust at the highest level.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, India’s former diplomat and foreign policy expert Achal Malhotra said, “As far as India-Central Asia is concerned, India has been trying to outreach this region for quite some time. Almost more than 10 years ago, India had announced a policy of connecting central Asia and the idea is to cultivate this region to the extent possible because it is important to New Delhi in terms of connectivity, sourcing precious requirements like Uranium from Kazakhstan or the gas pipeline from Turkmenistan. And also to be relevant to this region, India has been trying to engage all the countries in the region and we have had some good relations with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. Now in the context of Afghanistan run over by the Taliban, as a result of which India’s role and influence in that country has diminished to a great extent and India have limited leverages in the country, therefore, the importance of Iran and Central Asia has increased many folds in India’s foreign policy”.
The China factor
Meanwhile, as India aims to become a leading player in the Central Eurasian landmass, China seems to be flexing its muscles and giving a hot competition in the region. Most interestingly, days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to host the India-Central Asia summit, China held a virtual summit on Tuesday to mark 30 years of diplomatic ties with the Central Asian countries. During the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the provision of a USD 500 million donation to the Central Asian countries over the next three years for the implementation of socially significant projects.
This was China’s first major diplomatic action for Central Asia this year and the first heads-of-state meeting between China and the five Central Asia countries. As of now, India does not seem to be competing against China directly in the region but as Chinese influence grows in the region, competition is inevitable for New Delhi.
Former diplomat Malhotra said that as far as China is concerned, it shares borders with many of the Central Asian countries. The region is very important from China’s Belt and Road initiative and in any case, China is trying to have its foothold in as many countries as possible all across the world including Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh Maldives. So this is an ongoing process. He, therefore, opined that with China, India has to adopt a policy that envisages competition, containment.
“And if China behaves on the border, India can think in terms of cooperation and collaboration because there are many areas where we should act together. Also, there is a potential economically but given China’s attitude, things are not shaping up well. Therefore, it is a ground reality that India has to face and the competition will continue. India’s efforts to contain China’s influence to the extent that it doesn’t damage India’s interest is a constant endeavor that our policymakers are making”, he added.
