PHOTO: Xinhua News
The first ministerial meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue took place on January 13, 2019 in Samarkand, Republic of Uzbekistan.
The meeting was attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Salahuddin Rabbani, India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Beibut Atamkulov, Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan Chingiz Aidarbekov, Foreign Minister of Tajikistan Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rasit Meredow, and Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov.
They discussed a wide range of issues aimed at expanding friendly and mutually beneficial relations between India and the countries of Central Asia in bilateral and multilateral formats. The focus was on 1) promoting mutual trade, transport, and logistics; 2) attracting investment, innovation, and technologies in key industries such as energy, information technologies, medicine, pharmaceuticals, agriculture; 3) promoting interaction in culture, science, education, and tourism in the framework of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/73/128 on education and religious tolerance.
The representatives also confirmed their readiness for further cooperation in multilateral forums and organizations, including coordination of positions, information exchange, and mutual support of candidates.
The Heads of Foreign Ministries noted with satisfaction for the successful organization of the meeting in Samarkand and expressed deep gratitude to the Republic of Uzbekistan for its organization.
The participants agreed to continue the India-Central Asia Dialogue with the participation of Afghanistan at the level of Foreign Ministers on a regular basis, and agreed to meet in this format in New Delhi in 2020.
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
