Mains Marathon

• Brief Introduction about India and Central Asian Nations relationship.
• Discuss the importance of Central Asia Nations for India.
• Write an appropriate Conclusion.

Answer:

India and Central Asia have ancient links. The archeological and historical evidence points to their close cultural, trade and political links. Central Asia provided the 'silk route' for China, India, and Europe.

The inaugural India-Central Asia Summit, the India-Central Asia Dialogue, and the Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan in New Delhi held over the past months collectively indicate a renewed enthusiasm in New Delhi to engage the Central Asian region.

India has limited economic and other stakes in the region, primarily due to lack of physical access. The region appears to have gained a great deal of significance in India’s strategic thinking over the years, particularly in the recent past. India’s mission to Central Asia today reflects, and is responsive to the new geopolitical, if not the geo-economic, realities in the region.

Geostrategic, Geoeconomics, and Geopolitical significance of Central Asian states to India:

India’s renewed engagement of Central Asia is in the right direction for the simple reason that while the gains from an engagement of Central Asia may be minimal, the disadvantages of non-engagement could be costly in the longer run.

Checking China: As China is emerging as a great threat to the security of India from border skirmishes to the String of pearl strategy to encircle India from all sides, Central Asia provides a lot of scope to deal with China.

Connectivity: Central Asia serves as a land bridge between Asia and Europe, making it geopolitically axial for India.

• 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.

Resources: 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.

Business Opportunities: 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.

Common View on World issues: 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.

In the post-Cold War period of globalization and multi-polarity, there is enormous scope for a convergence of interests between India and the Central Asian republics. This could emerge on a variety of issues such as:

• coping with global economic changes,
• dealing with the multi-polar world dominated by a few powerful states,
• tackling ethnic and cultural diversity associated with ethno-nationalism,
• tackling the menace of religious fundamentalism and trans-border terrorism,
• nation/state building and related establishment of institutions; the common thread binding India and Central Asian states is that both are 'plural societies', which need build a liberal, secular and democratic model.

Challenges:

• Issue of Connectivity: There are obstructions of physical connectivity due to Pakistan’s hostility and fall of Afghanistan in the hand of Taliban.
• Low Volume of Trade: India’s current trade volume with Central Asia is minimal, and cannot be increased without substantially improving transport connectivity.
• Instability and Insecurity: 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.
• Administrative Bottlenecks: 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.
• Overfocus on Look East Policy: 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.
• Powerhouse for drug and money trafficking: 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.
• Chinese factor: India’s trip’ to Central Asia is not going to be easy. For one, China, which shares a land border with the region, is already a major investor there. China is the region’s most important economic partner, a reality that worries Russia and sharpens India’s relative irrelevance in the region.

Conclusion

• India should be fully mindful of its historic Silk Route ties with Central Asia and try to make an entry into the largely untapped energy potential of the region.
• India needs to use its instrument of economic leverages more efficiently to build closer ties with Central Asia.
• The 'Connect Central Asia' Policy is a very comprehensive policy which includes political, security, economic and cultural cooperation.
• India should make efforts to step up multilateral engagement with Central Asian partners using the synergy of existing forums like the SCO, Eurasian Economic Community (EEC) etc.
• Measures such as relaxing of visa regimes, establishing schools and universities; strengthening tourism; Investment in agriculture sector can significantly improve India’s position in the region.
• Growing synergies between the India and CAR will promote security, stability, economic growth and development of all countries.