India's 'Central Asia' Policy
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Tajikistan is the "lynchpin" of India's CCAP because of its strategic location. Its borders are with Afghanistan, China, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, and it is located in close proximity to Gilgit Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Delhi and Dushanbe have shared concerns on terrorism and drug trafficking.
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The Rasht Valley hostilities of 2010 and the recent clashes in Gorno-Badakhshan have heightened fears of insurgency spilling over to Tajikistan from Afghanistan. There is an ongoing co-operation in the defense and security sector with India providing training to Tajik forces to cope with such threats. India maintains its only foreign military base in Farkhor near Ayni, where the Indian Army is likely to restart medical services at the base hospital where Ahmed Shah Massoud -the Lion of Panjshir -was once treated.
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Tajikistan has vast potential to generate hydroelectricity which is of great interest to Indian industry. India is helping Dushanbe in developing the Varzob I hydropower station.
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India may also benefit from the Russia-backed CASA 2000 power project. Agriculture, tourism, education, research and skills development are the other thrust areas in the blossoming bilateral relationship. Indo-Tajik trade which stood at $32.5 million in 2009-10, is set to leapfrog once the NSTC is in place.
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India attaches great importance to Kazakhstan for 4 main reasons: its strategic location, its untapped energy and mineral wealth, its secular values and the vast tracts of land available for large-scale commercial farming. Manmohan Singh's visit to Astana in 2011 helped India to finally gain access to the North Caspian Sea region, a known repository of oil and gas and Kazakh uranium.
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OVL (the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation)was allowed to pick up a 25% stake in the Kazmunaigaz-run offshore Satpayev oil block. During the Prime Ministerial visit, a joint action plan was signed in areas like nuclear energy, IT, cyber security, pharmaceuticals, healthcare,agriculture, cultural exchanges, mining and fertilizers.
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Kazakhstan hosts the Baikanour cosmodrome butlacks an independent space program. Kazakhstan looks at Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to catapult it into the league of space faring nations.
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Hamid Ansari's visit to Turkmenistan in 2008 opened up new vistas for Indo-Turkmen engagement. India's appetite for energy supplies and Turkmenistan's quest for diversification of its energy exports locked the two sides in a strategic embrace. The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, which will begin from the Doveletabad gasfield and end in Fazilka on the Punjab border, is touted as the backbone of the emerging relationship.
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Turkmenistan, being a Caspian Sea littoral state, has a special appeal to Indian capital. Ashgabat has sought Indian investments in pharmaceutical, mining, textile,telecom and IT sectors to put more flesh on existing ties.
India and Uzbekistan share historic and cultural ties. Buddhism reached China through Uzbekistan while Sufism came to India mainly from Uzbekistan. Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, marched to Delhi from Samarkand.
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The Shastri Centre for Indian Culture has been hailed for fostering cultural relations. The plannedroad from the Uzbek city of Termez to Herat in Afghanistan, which will be linked by railways to Chahbahar, will cut the distance between India and Uzbekistan by 1,500 kilometers. Loads of cotton, wool, silks, metals and fertilizers can then reach Indiain just a few days.
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Tashkent has allowed Indian participation in the development of its energy sector, particularly the Karakal gas reserves. Joint military exercises between the 2 armed forces have been steadily growing over the lastfew years. The Pul-e-Khumri transmission line, built by India to bring electricity to Kabul from Baghlan and the power provided by Uzbekistan, stands out as a symbol of growing mutual co-operation.
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The Tian Shan covers over 80% of Kyrgyz territory, which overlooks the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang Province of China, which was part of the Old Silk Route, dotted with towns like Kashgar and Hotan where there is a massive surge in infrastructural development through the Karakoram Highway to Gwadar. Reports of PLA cadres embedded in the construction squads in the Karakoram sector near Ladakh, have raised hackles in Delhi. India looks set to play a bigger role in developing Kyrgyzstan's mining, agriculture, IT, hydropower and pharmaceutical sectors besides boosting cultural and educational ties. The Defense Research and Development Organizations (DRDO) Mountain Biomedical Research Center is an ambitious joint project with Kyrgyzstan. India has evinced interest in jointly managing the poorly run Kumtor gold mine. The 2 armed forces have conducted military exercises, jungle warfare training and counter-terrorism drills. The Indian army is also willing to train Kyrgyz forces in UN peacekeeping missions.
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