Central Asian countries offered to connect railway routes to Chabahar Port
Addressing the event, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Beibut Atamkulov highlighted that "The Head of our state, Nursultan Nazarbayev, always pays particular attention to strengthening neighborly and allied relations with the countries of the region. And, the geographical, cultural and historical affinity of the countries of Central Asia, the traditionally established production ties, the complementarity of the economies of our countries leave no other alternative but deeper integration between the countries of Central Asia."
The Kazakh Foreign Minister underscored the importance of the meeting for the rapprochement of Central Asia countries and India, as well as for boosting the economies of the Central Asian countries. The sides were informed of the need to implement joint projects with India in the areas of medicine, pharmaceuticals, new technologies, and finance taking advantage of the opportunities created by the Astana Hub International Technopark of IT-startups and the Astana International Financial Centre. The idea of creating a consortium with the participation of all Central Asian countries to connect the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran and Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran rail routes and the Chabahar Port for the Central Asia-India freight transportation so that to increase the transit and transport potential of the region was announced there.
During the event, the sides discussed issues of economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation, as well as the promotion of stabilization and economic development of Afghanistan. In particular, they considered issues of enhancing mutual trade, expanding direct contacts between business associations, developing the transit-transport and communication potential of Central Asian countries, promoting joint initiatives to create international and regional transport corridors, and attracting Indian investments, innovations and technologies to Central Asian economies, including in the areas of industry, energy, information technology, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, etc.
As a result of the meeting, a Joint Statement of the Foreign Ministers of the Dialogue countries was adopted. The sides underlined the dynamic and fruitful development of friendly relations and mutually advantageous cooperation between India and the countries of Central Asia, reaffirmed the aspirations towards regional cooperation, mutual support, joint settlement of topical issues to ensure security, stability, and sustainable development of the region.
A number of expert meetings held since 2012 preceded the proposal to hold the first ministerial meeting of the "India-Central Asia-Afghanistan" Dialogue. The initiative to hold such meetings was launched by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) jointly with the Ministry of External Affairs of India.
