Fri, Jul 04, 2025
Quiet Diplomacy: India's Trade, Anti-Terror Dialogue With Central Asia
Away from the spotlight of India's post-Pahalgam global outreach, important ties were firmed up in Delhi with Central Asian countries, which focused on trade, digital infra, fighting terror
Jun 10, 2025 · 4 min read
In the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attack in Pahalgam, India's diplomatic outreach, cutting across party lines, has set the ball rolling, not only in shaping global public opinion against state-sponsored terror in the short run, but also as an extension of India's growing voice and heft in the long run.
India now needs to extend its hand of friendship beyond the usual areas to newer territories.
Central Asia, notwithstanding the deep-rooted historical bonding and goodwill since the Soviet era, does not often catch the imagination of policymakers and business elites in India. Despite being part of India's extended neighbourhood and with strong secular credentials, it has not received enough attention so far.
Dialogue With Central Asia
Importantly, the India-Central Asia Dialogue on June 6 in New Delhi, held after a gap of over three years, achieved concrete results. The benefits now should be harvested. The Dialogue emphasised the optimum use of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) to enhance connectivity between India and the Central Asian countries.
The INSTC is a multi-modal transportation route covering 7,200 km, linking the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea, and onward to northern Europe via St Petersburg. This will be a game changer.
It was stressed that connectivity initiatives should be based on principles of transparency, broad participation, local priorities, financial sustainability, respect for sovereignty, and territorial integrity of all countries.
India reiterated its support for the membership of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the INSTC. In this context, ministers appreciated the initiative taken by Kazakhstan to develop the eastern branch of the INSTC.
The visiting ministers appreciated the first meeting of the India-Central Asia Joint Working Group on Chabahar port held in Mumbai in April 2023. India welcomed the interest of Central Asian countries to utilise the services of the Shahid Beheshti Terminal at Chabahar to facilitate their trade with India and beyond.
The participants agreed to continue engagement for further developing the transit and transport potential of their countries, through simplification and streamlining of goods transit procedures. These will include greater use of the TIR (Transports Internationaux Routiers or International Road Transports) Carnet between India and Central Asia.
TIR Carnet is a customs transit document used for transporting goods under the system stipulated in the multilateral TIR Convention — a 1975 treaty to simplify and harmonise international road transport.
Focus On Trade, Digital Public Infra
India-Central Asia Business Council (ICABC), as a B2B body under the India-Central Asia Dialogue for promoting business linkages, has now identified potential areas for investment and will facilitate greater understanding of business regulations.
The Central Asian countries noted the importance of the India Stack in accelerating digital transformation and providing public service delivery at scale. India Stack is a digital public infrastructure (DPI), covering Aadhaar, UPI, eKYC, DigiLocker, etc, that aims to revolutionise the delivery of services in India.
India agreed to assist in developing DPI for the Central Asian countries through the establishment of the India-Central Asia Digital Partnership Forum. Uzbekistan will host its inaugural meeting.
Commitment To Fight Terror
On cross-border terror, Central Asia was on the same page as India. Both sides have reaffirmed their commitment to fight terrorism in all forms, and reiterated that providing a haven, using terrorist proxies for cross-border attacks, terror financing, arms and drugs trafficking, dissemination of radical ideology and abuse of cyberspace to spread disinformation and incite violence, goes against the basic principles of humanity and international relations.
They stressed that perpetrators, organisers, financiers, and sponsors of terrorist acts must be held accountable and brought to justice. They also stressed the need to strengthen a UN-led global counter-terrorism cooperation, and to fully implement relevant UNSC resolutions, a global counter-terrorism strategy, and FATF standards.
It was also decided that all the countries will focus on Afghanistan’s prosperity and future, given the common interest of India and Central Asia in its stability.
(The writer is a commentator on geo-politics and geo-economics. Views are personal)
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