“India has several millennia old historical, cultural and civilisational links with Central Asia. Brisk trade of goods, ideas, and thoughts took place from India (and China) to Central Asia and beyond over the Silk Road from 3rd century BC to 15th century AD. Buddhism travelled to Afghanistan, Central Asia and Western China from India through the Silk Road. Alexander of Macedonia, Kushans, Babur, and Mughals and Sufism are evidence of vigorous links between India and the region over the ages. India and Central Asian regions have enjoyed vibrant economic and cultural ties when these nations were a part of the Soviet Union.”
- Ambassador Ashok Sajjanhar
India and Central Asian Nations: A Conceptual Historical Brief
India, as a nation has always believed in the ideal principles of Vasudhaiva Kutumbhakam; essential practices of natural justice; tenets of qualitative democracy such as rule of law, equidistant ambivalence in terms of internal and external sovereignty, nomocracy, et al; the essence of constitutional morality and transformative constitutionalism- not just domestically but, also internationally; which quintessentially aids India in viewing the whole world as one family, working towards one common purpose of global progress as well as collective development. The inevitability and practicality of this consciously thought-out national foreign policy lies in the fact that India has always reached out as a first respondent to any nation in distress, respected the national sovereignty of friendly nations, and has always striven to collaborate meaningfully with other countries of the world.
India undoubtedly and pertinently has historical ties with a number of nations around the globe, and has always tried to harness these ties for social, economic, cultural, traditional, and spiritual progress amidst a turbulent and dynamic global world order. Within the cohort of the aforementioned nations also comes up the close and strategic relations that India shares with Central Asian countries which include long time partners of the Indian Republic namely- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It was back in the year 2022 that India hosted the First India-Central Asian Summit to extract the maximum potential shared by India and the inter-regional grouping of the Central Asian countries.
India is having a long-standing relationship with the Central Asian region that goes back to the 3rd century Silk Road Route, which facilitated transportation of goods, textile export-import, and dispersion of myriad ideas, religion, and philosophical ideologies. However, the close bond shared by the Central Asian countries with India, did suffer for a very long time after the disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991. Nevertheless, today, the close-knitted partnership between the two regions has found a strong basic foundational footing for futuristic growth and overcoming any challenges, whatsoever.
India and Central Asia: A Transition from Passive Relationship to an Active Strategic Partnership
Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the importance of strategic relations between India and the Central Asian countries by stating, “India deeply cherishes its historical ties with the countries of Central Asia. We are looking further to deepening our ties and cooperation in trade, connectivity, energy, and fin-tech, food security and health for mutual prosperity and progress.” India not only considers the Central Asian countries an extended part of her larger neighbourhood paraphernalia, but also has consistently striven to establish constructive strategic partnerships with all the five Central Asian countries. The Central Asian region, particularly requires consistent stabilization and this stability is essential to manage any fall-outs, conflicts, or friction points that might arise out of India’s immediate neighbourhood comprising of Afghanistan, Iran, or Pakistan for that matter. This will definitely aid in counter-terrorism strategies, youth engagement and channelization of youth dividend, educational prospects, and close ties with other inter-regional groupings such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), BRICS, ASEAN and QUAD.
Strengthening of India’s ties with Central Asian countries, heightened positive economic balance, partnerships and agreements on economic trade of rare-earth metals/minerals, harnessing energy resources such as natural gas and oil, amongst other areas of collaboration- will not only aid in enhanced trade and investment relations from both the sides, but will also play an inevitable role in diversification of economies. The Indian engagement with the Central Asian region in terms of transportation and communication via the International North-South Transport Corridor is an instance signifying the potential of the relationship that is shared by India-Central Asia. Apart from this, trade and economic partnerships in terms of pharmaceuticals, construction infrastructure and information technologies, is another area whereby India can potentially harness the close bond shared with Central Asia.
Way Forward: The Road Ahead for Strengthening Ties and Converging Interests
Even though the relationship between India and Central Asian countries has immense potential, there are impeding challenges which are obstructing the growth of this particular global bond. The physical impediments in direct connectivity between both the regions is quite an obstacle, which has been heightened by the hostilities shown by Pakistan (along with other regional players), and recurrent destabilisation in Afghanistan and related geographies. Additionally, the current trade between India and Central Asia is at minimal levels, which can be increased substantially by leveraging the aforementioned opportunities present. The Central Asian countries are since a very long time facing the issues of Islamic fundamentalism, falling currency reserves, and unstable democracies. Apart from this, Chinese expansionist plans, and drug smuggling are some of the additional issues plaguing the region.
However, in all these issues, India can prove to be a very reliable partner for Central Asia. Strategic partnerships at the level of economic, traditional, and political levels can aid in increased stabilization in the Central Asian region as well as enhanced levels of friendship and trade with India. Full optimization of the shared potential is yet another way of gaining access to technologies, ideologies and common outlooks between both the sides. Conclusively, India and Central Asia have an immense potential to grow shoulder-to-shoulder with each other, and aid each other in growing beyond global expectations for shared progress and development in the most righteous terms.