Visit of External Affairs Minister to Samarkand, Uzbekistan for the First India-Central Asia Dialogue (January 12-13, 2019)

New Delhi:  The First India-Central Asia Dialogue at the level of Foreign Ministers was hold in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on 12-13 January 2019. External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj was co-chaired the Dialogue along with H.E. Mr. Abdulaziz Kamilov, the host and the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan also participated in the Dialogue as a special invitee for the Session dedicated to connectivity issues in the region. Foreign Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan will represent their respective countries.

Bound together through shared history and cultural linkages, India and the Central Asian states look forward to the Dialogue as an important initiative to enhance their cooperation in wide-ranging spheres including exploring ways to substantially enhance India’s economic involvement in business and development sector of Central Asia. With the participation of Afghanistan, the participants of the Dialogue will also deliberate on developing viable connectivity options between India and Afghanistan and Central Asia to further facilitate trade and economic activity in the region.

Following Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s landmark visit to all the five Central Asian countries in 2015 and External Affairs Minister’s Central Asia tour in August 2018, the India-Central Asia Dialogue, with the participation of Afghanistan, is expected to strengthen India’s engagement, including political, economic, development partnership and cultural, with all the Central Asian countries and take it to a new level.

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