- What is Central Asia?
- Why is Central Asia important for India?
- India’s problem in Central Asia?
- What has China done in Central Asia?
- What is Connect Central Asia Policy?
What is Central Asia?
Country | Capital |
---|---|
Kazakhstan | Astana |
Kyrgyzstan | Bishkek |
Tajikistan | Dushanbe |
Turkmenistan | Ashgabat |
Uzbekistan | Tashkent |
- Collectively they’re known as Central Asian Republics (CAR)
- also known as the underbelly of Eurasia

Central Asia (Political)
Why is Central Asia important for India?
- rich resource of hydrocarbons and minerals.
- lies on the old silk route – connecting China and South Asia to West Asia and Europe.
- So we can setup factories in CAR, we can directly launch our products in EU (decreasing the transportation cost).
India’s problem in Central Asia?
- Central Asia has huge reserves of hydrocarbon and Minerals.
- But we are unable to get them because of Transportation problems
- through Afghanistan : problem – region is unstable due to Talibans.
- through Iran: problem- it’ll annoy Americans. (recall the Chabahar port article)
- The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) and Iran-Pakistan-India(IPI) pipelines projects are not moving smoothly due to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- There are three key locations from which we can access the Central Asia
- Chahabar and Bandar Abbas ports in Iran
- Hajigak/Bamiyan in Afghanistan
- Bandar Anzali on the Caspian Sea.
What has China done in Central Asia?
- China has already built roads, railways and pipelines across this resource-rich region.
- Oil pipelines from the Caspian Sea across Kazakhstan
- gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan,
- deep-sea port of Gwadar in Pakistan
- China is exploiting the Siberian timber, Mongolian iron ore, Kazakh oil, Turkmen natural gas and Afghan copper through this transportation network.
What is Connect Central Asia Policy?
- India has launched this “Connect Central Asia Policy” to
- Tap the natural resources (oil,gas,iron-ore etc) of Central Asia.
- Counter the hegemony (domination) of China in this region.
- This policy was formally declared at Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) by our Minister of State (External Affairs) in June 2012.
- Under this policy, we’ll do following things
Meet and Greet
- We’ll build strong political relations with these nations via the exchange of high level visits. Example
- Their Presidents/ PMs coming to India and Mohan doing the reverse.
- Inviting their Presidents as chief guests on our 26th Jan. parades.)
- Indian PRime minister will continue to interact with Central Asian leaders, closely both in bilateral and multilateral fora. i.e SCO, Eurasian Economic Community (EEC), Custom Union, UN etc.
Fire and kill
- We’ll strengthen our strategic and security cooperation with this countries.
- Military training, joint research, counter-terrorism coordination and close consultations on Afghanistan.
Trade and Prosper
- Proposed a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement
- Kazakhstan, have almost limitless reserves of iron ore and coal, as well as abundant cheap electricity. India can help set up several medium size steel rolling mills, producing its requirement of specific products.
- Right now, due to absence of a viable banking infrastructure in the Central Asian region, we are unable to do much trade and investment. So, Indian banks will be setting up branches here.
- International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)
- It is a joint venture between Iran, India, Russia and Azerbaijan
- It will connect India to Central Asia through Iran via rail, road and ship network.

International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)
Teach and Heal
- We’ll help set up a Central Asian University in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) to impart world class education in areas like IT, management, philosophy and languages.
- We’ll set up a Central Asian e-network with its hub in India, to deliver, tele-education and tele-medicine connectivity, linking all the five Central Asian States.
- We’ll be setting up civil hospitals/clinics in Central Asia.
Fly and Film

Rajnikanth might shoot his next movie in Tajikistan, but if we’ve Rajnikanth on our side then we shouldn’t be worried about Chinese Hegemony over Central Asia in the first place!
- We’ll improve air connectivity with those countries. (lolz perhaps via Air India!)
- Central Asian countries could emerge as attractive holiday destinations for tourists and even for the Indian film industry which likes to depict exotic foreign locales in its films.
- We will encourage regular exchanges of scholars, academics, civil society and youth delegations to gain deeper insights into each other’s cultures.
Central Asian University is proposed in Bishkek ( Kryg and not Kazh- istan)Please correct that.
hey
can u upload psychology mains Question papers Plzzz
Rhythmic Sub-headings.
If you can list natural resource corridors also.
mrunal you dont know how much good wishes you got daily.
thanks .
nice
gud article on central asia
i was searching for such article fr a long tym..thnx a lot..
hi,
article with map is very nice.
Hi Mrunal
Bandar Anzali on the Caspian Sea a land-locked sea, could you pl elaborate how the route has been envisaged
Also Hajigak/Bamiyan in Afghanistan is not understandable..
Pl elaborate
Indian port on west coast to——- Iranian port (Chabbahar or other)——–To Bandar Anzali by Road —— To CAR by Ship crossing the Caspian Sea.
Hajigak/Bamiyan route will be the extension of Chabbahar to —— Zaranj Delaram Highway. As proposed in the recent NAM summit.
thnx a lot mrunal and partho too,for explaining the route.
Rajni….mind it !!!!
dear sir,
i am willing to ake Maharshtra Public Service commission 2013. kindly guide me on the same
mrunal ne toh kamal kar diya….
dhoti faad k rumal kr diya….:-D
very good information…thanks
good article
hi
Thank god for rajni! I can sleep in peace tonight!
thanks Mrunal
“There are three key locations from which we can access the Central Asia
Chahabar and Bandar Abbas ports in Iran”
why do we need to go to south of iran to get reserves from central asia … ?
You need to go to south of iran to get reserves from central asia because
a) India has no connecting land border with Central asian countries.
b) Pakistan wont let you use their space neither land or sea or air.
(fact: India and Pakistan Trade across direct routes has been curtailed formally, so the bulk of India-Pakistan trade is routed through Dubai and if you want to travel to Pakistan through Air you have to travel via another country like Oman, Dubai, etc. . . )
c) India has no connecting land border to Afghanistan which borders central asian countries though POK connects Afg, but it cant use it because of dispute region and pak considers it as Gilgit–Baltistan so India cant connect to Afg and even if india can use it somehow because of occasional landslides, Heavy monsoon, Heavy snow act as a barrier.
d) India has good relations with Iran and Afg, and as you cant go through afg use a proxy route through Iran via Chabahar Port.