India's central Indian outreach GS: 2

India's central Indian outreach

GS: 2

 

Context

• The evolving situation in Afghanistan has thrown up renewed challenges for India’s regional and bilateral ties with Central Asia and the Caucasus, prompting India to recalibrate its rules of engagement with the region.

 

Background of India’s relations with Central Asian countries

• After the breakup of the Soviet Union and the formation of the independent republics in Central Asia, India reset its ties with the strategically critical region.
• India provided financial aid to the region and established diplomatic relations.
• New Delhi signed the Strategic Partnership Agreements (SPA) with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to stimulate defence cooperation and deepen trade relations.
• In 2012, New Delhi’s ‘Connect Central Asia’ policy aimed at furthering India’s political, economic, historical and cultural connections with the region.
• However, India’s efforts were stonewalled by Pakistan’s lack of willingness to allow India passage through its territory.

 

Importance of Central Asia for India

• India has a very wide array of interests in Central Asia covering security, energy, economic opportunities etc.
• Central Asia serves as a land bridge between Asia and Europe, making it geopolitically axial for India.
• Security, stability and prosperity of Central Asia is imperative for peace and economic development of India.
• The region is rich in natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, antimony, aluminum, gold, silver, coal and uranium which can be best utilized by Indian energy requirement.
• Central Asia has huge cultivable areas lying barren and without being put to any productive use, offering enormous opportunity for cultivation of pulses. Indian agribusiness companies can setup commercial agro-industrial complexes in Central Asia.
• Owing to higher economic growth, several areas have become attractive for construction business, providing huge scopes to Indian companies engaging in financial services, contractors, engineers, and management specialists.
• Both India and Central Asian Republics (CARs) share many commonalities and perceptions on various regional and world issues and can play crucial role in providing regional stability.
• For India to use Chabahar as a vital gateway to access Eurasian markets and optimally operationalize its use, requires a Central Asian state joining the project as a direct stakeholder.
• Central Asian Regions are fast getting linked to the global market for production, supplies of raw materials and services. They are also increasingly getting integrated into the East-West Trans-Eurasian transit economic corridors.

 

Renewed engagement with Central Asia

• The growing geostrategic and security concerns regarding the BRI’s China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and its violation of India’s sovereignty forced New Delhi to fix its lethargic strategy.
• Eventually, Central Asia became the link that placed Eurasia in New Delhi’s zone of interest.
• India signed MoUs with Iran in 2015 to develop the Chabahar port in the Sistan-Baluchistan province that was in the doldrums from 2003.
• External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was in the region earlier this month.
• In Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Jaishankar extended a credit line of $200 million for the support of development projects and signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) on High-Impact Community Development Projects (HICDP).
• Kazakhstan: His next stop was the Kazakhstan capital, Nur Sultan, where he attended the 6th Foreign Ministers’ Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).
• Armenia: Mr. Jaishankar has become the first Indian External Affairs Minister to visit Armenia.
• During the visit, Mr. Jaishankar also supported efforts for a peaceful solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk group.

Limits of SCO

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was created in response to the threats of terrorism that sprang from Afghanistan.
• The Taliban re-establishing its supremacy over Afghanistan has also exposed the weaknesses of coalitions such as SCO.
• The SCO has been used by most member countries for their own regional geostrategic and security interests, increasing the trust-deficit and divergence within the forum.

 

Indian Synergy in Central Asian Region

• Central Asia is facing many challenges in food security; Indian expertise in the field can be a game changer in the region.
• Commercial farming is another important area where India and CARs can cooperate.
• India’s experience in boosting food and milk production and modernizing agro-techniques under the green and white revolution can prove panacea for Central Asia.
• Good relations with India will provide an assured market to these countries for their energy, raw materials, oil and gas, uranium, minerals, hydro electric power etc.
• India can significantly bring in lots of foreign investment along with technical expertise in field of infrastructure, hospitality, medical etc.

Challenges

• There are obstructions of physical connectivity due to Pakistan’s hostility and Afghan instability for its desultory attitude towards Central Asia.
• India’s current trade volume with Central Asia is minimal, and cannot be increased without substantially improving transport connectivity.
• Politically, the Central Asian republics are highly fragile and also face threats like terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism etc making the region a volatile and unstable market.
• There are several administrative laggards in the region such as non-availability of hard currency, banking services, and prevailing corruption creating roadblocks in smooth bilateral relations.
• India’s "Look East" policy has resulted in concentrating its economic and diplomatic resources in Southeast and East Asia.
• Involvement of China in Central Asia in form of Belt and Road Initiative while posing opportunity by giving easy access to India in the region, it can significantly undermine India’s influence in the region.
• Porous border and unbridled corruption along with the proximity with regions of soaring opium production (Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle) makes the region a powerhouse for drug and money trafficking.

 

Way forward

• Most of the Central Asian leaders view India’s Chabahar port as an opportunity to diversify their export markets and control China’s ambitions.
• They have admitted New Delhi into the Ashgabat Agreement, allowing India access to connectivity networks to facilitate trade and commercial interactions with both Central Asia and Eurasia, and also access the natural resources of the region.
• Rising anti-Chinese sentiments within the region and security threats from the Taliban allow New Delhi and Central Asia to reimagine their engagement.
• Central Asian countries have been keen to have India as a partner as they have sought to diversify their strategic ties.