India and Uzbekistan are expected to sign a slew of MoUs and Agreements in the field of the development partnership, renewable energy, capacity building at Friday’s summit which will be Delhi’s maiden virtual summit with the Central Asian region.
Central Asia is often referred to as an extended neighborhood’ and India’s outreach to Uzbekistan is important from this perspective. Bilateral relations today encompass a wider canvas, including on political and strategic issues, defense and security, trade and investment, energy, agriculture, S&T, education, and people-to-people ties.
The bilateral Summit provides an opportunity to both sides to further enhance their strategic partnership through high-level political contacts, strengthen defense and security cooperation, enhance development partnership and work on connectivity initiatives, well-placed sources told ET.
India and Uzbekistan declared their Strategic Partnership in
2011. The dynamism to this partnership was imparted by the visit of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi in July 2015 when his back-to-back visit to all the five
Central Asian countries demonstrated a new determination on India’s part to
reach out to all Central Asian countries.
