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Central Asia is our extended neighbourhood: Sinha

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA (BAHRAIN) Feb. 1. In reaching out to Central Asia, India is not competing with any of the international players that are engaging the strategically important region, the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, has said.

In an exclusive conversation with The Hindu over the phone from Almaty, Kazakhstan, Mr. Sinha said, "we are not in Central Asia to replace anyone. We see Central Asia as part of India's extended neighbourhood and our presence there is to promote a mutually inclusive relationship." Mr. Sinha made these observations when asked to comment on India's approach to Central Asia, at a time when countries such as China, the United States and Russia were maintaining a high profile in the region. Mr. Sinha, who returned to India via Almaty after visiting Tajikistan and Kyrghyzstan, is the first External Affairs Minister to visit Dushanbe.

Central Asia began to acquire increasing international focus after it became the western flank for a military offensive against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, following the September 11 terror attacks in the United States. The U.S. established military bases in Kyrghystan and Uzbekistan, while Russia continues to position nearly 30,000 troops in Tajikistan. India's interest in the region acquired a sharper focus after these incidents, and the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, visited Almaty in June last year.

"I wanted to assure at a political level the leaderships of the countries I visited that India continued to be deeply interested in building a close relationship with Central Asia," Mr. Sinha said. With the Central Asian countries viewing India as a factor of stability and development, New Delhi was getting ready to foster deeper trade and investment ties with the region. It had already held talks with Iran and Afghanistan for developing the Iranian port of Chah Bahar as the lynchpin of a new trade corridor in Afghanistan. Since Afghanistan and Tajikistan share contiguous borders, the extension of this route into Central Asia from Afghanistan is becoming a distinct possibility. India, not surprisingly, is now looking at the scope of developing roads in Tajikistan.

Mr. Sinha pointed out that his visit to Tajikistan and Kyrghyzstan was also meant to provide more institutional content to the relationship with them. India would now push for regular meetings of the Joint Economic Commission with the two countries. With abundant water resources, both

Tajikistan and Kyrghyzstan were looking for Indian investment in the hydropower sector. India would also study the possibility of participating in mining silver in Tajikistan.

Aware that Central Asia is part of its energy security calculus, India and Kazakhstan are negotiating the former's participation in extracting oil from the promising Kurmangazy oil field in the Caspian Sea area. Mr. Sinha met the Kazakh Energy Minister prior to his departure for India and discussed the project.

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