Renewing Economic Relations Between India and Central Asia
India's linkages with Central Asian region date back to ancient history. The Silk Road connected the subcontinent with the steppes and the mountains of Eurasia and allowed not only transport of goods and trade, but ideas, philosophy, and religion.
Realising the importance of strengthening India-Central Asia relationship and reviving the historical, cultural and diplomatic links, the University of Central Asia (UCA) organised an online conference “The Current Dynamics of India-Central Asia Cooperation: New Opportunities and Challenges”. The forum brought together academics and diplomats on February 10th to further discuss various aspects of regional cooperation.
Dr Roman Mogilevskii, Associate Director and Senior Research Fellow at UCA’s Institute of Public Policy and Administration, spoke about trade and economic relationship between India and Central Asia at the conference. According to Dr Mogilevskii, trade between Central Asian countries and India has a huge untapped potential. However, there are several impediments, including railway connections, automobile roads, and the landlocked geography of the Central Asian region.
Currently there are two important infrastructure projects under construction. The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline, also known as the Peace Pipeline planned back in the 1990s; and the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000), between Central and South Asia to create and develop inter-regional linkages that was launched in 2016. CASA-1000 is intended to help the export of surplus hydroelectricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The progress of these two mega projects has been slower than expected.
The conference was organized in collaboration with the University of Central Asia, Jindal School of International Affairs, O.P. Jindal Global University (India), University of World Economy and Diplomacy (Uzbekistan), and Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Kazakhstan).
