Move over yoga, the new buzz in Uzbekistan is Ayurveda. The first virtual bilateral summit between Uzbekistan and India resulted in promises of closer connectivity, with Covid, culture and a personal declaration of intent from President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to start more Ayurvedic practitioners.
The virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mirziyoyev —who share “good chemistry’’—was held on Friday. It lasted over an hour. This is the first virtual summit India has had with a Central Asian country since the pandemic.
The summit was aimed to “further strengthen’’ strategic ties between the two countries. Nine MoUs have been signed including on solar energy, standardization of weights and measures—something even Babur admired centuries ago, as well as between police academics. India is also hoping to work out high impact community development projects in Uzbekistan.
An aspect both leaders focussed on was trade. The target of 1 billion dollars for bilateral trade has not been met and the leaders “stressed on the importance of making concerted efforts to achieve this target,’’ according to the joint statement. “They acknowledged that the current level of trade does not reflect the true potential of bilateral trade. The leaders instructed their officials to fast-track the conclusion of the ongoing Joint Feasibility Study that will pave the way for commencement of negotiations on a Preferential Trade Agreement,’’ the statement said.
There has been a push for closer cooperation between both the country—as part of Modi’s Central Asian vision. This has continued even during the pandemic. The foreign ministers of both countries met on the sidelines of the SCO summit. Modi was to visit Uzbekistan in July, but had to cancel it because of the pandemic. And the relationship has moved beyond the dimensions of culture and civilisational ties to embrace the harder aspects of strategy. One of the new areas of cooperation is nuclear energy. Uzbekistan is likely to start providing uranium to India, as part of the contract signed earlier.
Given Uzbekistan's closeness to Afghanistan India is also hoping to create better connectivity. The North West Transport Corridor has been pending for a while and the Uzbeks now want to jump on to the bandwagon. The Uzbek President has also suggested holding a trilateral discussion with Iran to improve connectivity.
“The Indian side welcomed the Uzbek proposal to hold trilateral dialogue among India, Iran and Uzbekistan to promote connectivity through the Chabahar port,’’ the joint statement said. This with the proposed air corridor has the potential to be a game changer for Central Asia and India.