India is looking at the possibility of having the leaders of the five Central Asian countries as the principal guests at coming time’s Republic Day fests against the background of the country’s focus on the strategic region for connectivity, trade and security The move to shoot assignations to the heads of state of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan also fits in with the Indian government’s focus on multipolarity and rebalancing, people familiar with the development said on condition of obscurity Still, the matter is yet to be finalised as responses were awaited from all the Central Asian countries, said two people, including a diplomat from a Central Asian state.
The principal guest for Republic Day fests is chosen in keeping with India’s strategic, politic and profitable interests, as well as New Delhi’s relations with the concerned country. Ties with the Central Asian countries have been on the upswing in recent times following the government’s focus on the region Still, it’ll be only the alternate time that heads of state of a bloc or group of countries have been invited to the Republic Day fests, If the move goes ahead. In 2018, the heads of the ten countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) were the principal guests at the periodic event. In 2009, the Kazakhstan chairman was the principal guest at Republic Day.
The foreign ministers of the five Central Asian countries are set to hold a meeting with their Indian counterpart S Jaishankar in New Delhi between December 18-19, the people cited over said. This will be the third similar meeting of the foreign ministers since 2019, and India has offered a$ 1-billion line of credit to the five Central Asian countries for systems in connectivity, energy, IT, husbandry, healthcare and education The significance of the Central Asian countries in the environment of indigenous security has increased following the Taliban preemption of Afghanistan inmid-August. Top security officers of all five Central Asian countries, Iran and Russia had attended a indigenous security dialogue on Afghanistan that was hosted by India on November 10.
The Delhi Declaration of Afghanistan, issued after the meeting, said all eight countries were committed to combating terrorism to insure that Afghanistan would noway come a haven for global terrorism. All the countries had also called for the conformation of a truly inclusive government in Kabul Uzbekistan is pivotal for India’s plans to boost connectivity with Central Asia as it’s part of a trilateral working group on the common use of Chabahar harborage along with Iran.