India-Central Asia Dialogue IV: A strategic opportunity

The IV India–Central Asia Dialogue in New Delhi, held on June 6, 2025, may well be remembered as more than just another diplomatic milestone. It represents a broader transformation in India's foreign policy, one that blends counterterrorism resolve with regional integration, historic ties with digital futures, and diplomacy with defense. In short, it marks India's assertion of strategic agency across Eurasia's contested heartland.
Speaking at the opening session of the IV India-Central Asia Dialogue, external affairs minister S Jaishankar thanked Central Asian counterparts for their solidarity in condemning the Pahalgam attack and reaffirmed India's intent to deepen 'a partnership defined by shared aspirations, shared opportunities, and common challenges.' That message is not rhetorical. It reflects India's new doctrine of regional presence. With Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that India had established a 'new benchmark' in counter-terrorism policy. In the wake of that operation, the Dialogue reinforces India's intention to convert tactical clarity into strategic connectivity.
India's ambitions in Central Asia are not new. But they have never been this consolidated or strategically framed. The dialogue reinforced India's identity as a trusted development partner, one that is investing in connectivity corridors, health infrastructure, digital public goods, and high-impact community development projects. India's approach is scaffolded by the C5+1 framework, which allows it to engage multilaterally with the five republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, while also managing bilateral dynamics. The format is fast maturing into a platform for everything from counterterror cooperation to fintech coordination.
India's broader objective? India aims to establish itself as a reliable geopolitical competitor in a region dominated by China's Belt and Road Initiative and Russia's military-economic complex. In this crowded field, India isn't trying to outbuild China or out-arm Russia but to compete as an equally strong partner to Central Asia by offering transparent, sustainable, and sovereign-friendly alternatives.
The Dialogue also put connectivity back in the spotlight. India recommitted to the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and Chabahar Port, inviting more active participation from Central Asian nations. Kazakhstan's proposal to develop the eastern branch of INSTC was welcomed as a strategic bridge between India and Eurasia. Economic diplomacy gained new dimensions with the promotion of trade in national currencies and the creation of a Joint Working Group on financial connectivity. The goal is not just trade; it's institutional connectivity. Add to that the growing potential for rare earth cooperation, another arena India is stepping into with confidence. The establishment of the India–Central Asia Digital Partnership Forum signals a digital leap forward. With Uzbekistan hosting the first edition, India aims to export elements of India Stack and help build Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) across the region. Unlike China's surveillance-heavy tech model, India's approach emphasises open access, transparency, and interoperability.
While security and infrastructure issues dominate headlines, India's Central Asia playbook is quietly being reinforced by soft power. Indian students, tourists, and cultural institutions are increasingly visiting cities like Tashkent and Almaty. The Dialogue acknowledged these people-to-people bonds, expanding youth exchanges and educational ties. However, air connectivity remains a bottleneck. Pakistan's airspace restrictions continue to complicate direct flight routes, making low-cost carriers like IndiGo unviable in the region. Currently, only Uzbekistan Airways and Air Astana offer direct connections, neither of which are affordable or frequent enough to catalyse tourism or business travel. For New Delhi to realise its soft power potential, it must solve this airspace access challenge, either diplomatically or by developing alternative corridors via Iran and the Gulf.
What sets Central Asia apart today is its growing regionalism. In contrast to the non-functional SAARC in South Asia, Central Asia is increasingly resolving disputes through diplomacy. This interstate regional cohesion makes it far more receptive to external partnerships, and India must adapt its foreign policy to this new regional logic of Central Asia. This shift adds value to the C5+1 format of India's dialogue with Central Asia.
The 4th India-Central Dialogue's focus on health care, sustainable energy, counter-radicalisation, and climate cooperation reflects this shift. India's development experiences, such as UPI for financial inclusion, Ayushman Bharat for health care, and its leadership in climate coalitions like ISA and GBA, are now being actively exported to Central Asian partners.
The IV India-Central Asia Dialogue was a pivotal moment in strategic affairs. As global power dynamics transition toward multipolarity, India's strategic role in Central Asia will significantly influence its ambitions throughout Eurasia. The dialogue transcends mere diplomatic formality; it serves as a strategic instrument for transforming India's engagement with a region that has historically been significant to its foreign policy objectives and is increasingly vital. From counterterrorism to connectivity, from Op-Sindoor to digital diplomacy, India is showing it has the will and the tools to redefine its presence in Eurasia. This process is no longer about catching up with China or balancing Russia. It's about anchoring a values-based, development-driven, sovereign-respecting framework of engagement. The next India–Central Asia Summit, slated for later in 2025, will offer a platform to elevate this vision to the leadership level.
India has arrived at the Silk Road with a new doctrine and a new direction. The challenge now is to make this new normal last.
This article is authored by Kamakshi Wason, global COO, Tillotoma Foundation.

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32 minutes ago

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Her draconian Emergency notwithstanding, Indira Gandhi will never be forgotten for giving India its finest hour in 1971 by dismembering Pakistan and forcing 93,000 troops to surrender in Dhaka. These are the stuff of legends – however much we dispute, denigrate or deny. The present 'hyphenation' of India with Pakistan, an almost failed state, is a deliberate insult inflicted on Modi's India to cut to a realistic size and to taunt a drum-beaten narrative that we are almost a superpower. True, India's self respect was salvaged when PM Modi was invited by the new Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney – of Harvard and Oxford, former Governor of the Bank of Canada and then of England, overrode objections from cantankerous Sikh separatists. But to what effect? America, the very fulcrum of G7, disappeared from the scene after Trump gave just a sneering glance and left – to avoid the overtures of the European heads, keen to catch his ear, to drill some sense. Not only could Modi not hug his dear Donald for photo ops, but he had to gulp the ignominy of watching the big man wine and dine his bête noire, the dreadful de facto ruler of Pakistan, Field Marshal Asim Munir. This lunch may have been offered to distance him from Iran, but now that the wily soldier has declared publicly that Trump must get the Nobel Prize for peace, the blonde man is just swooning. All of Modi's efforts to woo him with delirious Indian crowds screaming ' Abki baar, ' at Houston's 'Howdy, Modi' bash has gone down the drain. The bells have been clanging quite cacophonously for India – when, after hyphenating and equating Pak with India, the west-dominated the UN Security Council went a step forward to torpedo India's righteous indignation at Pakistan sponsored terrorism that killed 26 innocents at Pahalgam. India's screams notwithstanding, the UN Security Council declared Munir's Pakistan to be the vice chair of the committee to combat terrorism. "Friend" Russia looked on, with a smirk, as India's recent track record of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds backfired. It hurts all of us and more tragic is the fact that even after two full months, India could neither produce evidence before the international community. Nor could it enforce 'accountability at the highest levels' for the "intelligence failure" at Pahalgam that India's former Army chief, General Shankar Roychowdhury, had openly declared and . The UN Security Council also appointed Pakistan as chair of the Taliban sanctions committee. This is not only ironic, but a repayment with compound interest. In fact, Human Rights Watch, an international organisation that 'new' India reviles for its constant criticism of India's track record over the last 11 years, had boldly recorded Pakistani involvement with the Taliban, long ago. It said: 'Pakistan's army and intelligence services, principally the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), contribute to making the Taliban a highly effective military force'. But, since then, much water has flowed down the Indus, on which India has no tap, despite our current bluster to stop water. We chose not to hear these bells and blame it all on the Trump family's commercial interest in World Liberty Financial's new deal with Pakistan – to make it 'the crypto capital of South Asia" and a "global leader in the digital finance revolution." Back to our theme that India is completely isolated, especially after Operation Sindoor, we sifted through every phrase uttered at the pined-for G7 summit but could find not a word of support for India's justified war on terror. Even the Pahalgam attack was taken up by G7 only after India launched its operation against Pakistan. On the third day of the furious battle of aircrafts, missiles and drones (with no boots on the ground), the G7 did wake to 'strongly condemn the egregious terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22' without pointing fingers. But G7's chief focus was to 'urge maximum restraint from both India and Pakistan' (note how both are equated) and to 'call for immediate de-escalation and …engage in direct dialogue towards a peaceful outcome.' This is when the calculated blunderbuss Trump walked in to claim he pulled apart the two fighting children. To drive home USA's infatuation with Pakistan, the US Central Command chief General Michael Kurilla said that America appreciates Munir's cooperation against the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS‑KP). At the G7 Summit, nations waited for Trump to ramp up pressure on Russia and the Group was ready to lower the price cap on Russian oil from $ 60 to $ 45 dollars per barrel. This would drastically decrease Russia's oil revenues that financed its war in Ukraine. Not only did Trump veto the proposal (rewarding Putin) but he expressed his undisguised annoyance at G7 for dropping Russia from the original G8. Those Indian GDP enthusiasts who swear that high GDP means world power may note that Russia figures nowhere in the list of top 10 GDP countries. These consist of the G7 ones and China, India and Brazil. So, India's fourth GDP rank counts for so little in the Game of Thrones. Salt on wounds do not seem to stop as Trump is even reported to have suggested inclusion of China into a new G9. Wasn't he at Xi Jinping's throat – until the latter kicked his anatomy where it hurts the most? India's foreign office must surely have noted Trump's penchant for kissing those who behave the worst. Remember how passionately he had wooed the terribly unreliable Kim Jongun of North Korea? 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It goes, however, to a dignified, erudite Canadian PM's credit that he kept the few handful of Sikh agitators at bay and took positive steps to normalise relations with India. And, surely, PM Modi must have held bilateral talks with most – and one sincerely hopes that they begin to matter. After all, his visit to a record total of 74 countries so far could not persuade even one country– even Guyana or Fiji or Papua New Guinea would do, to begin with – to come out and say that they condemn Pakistan's terrorists and support India's retaliation. Also read: Rousing Rhetoric for Diaspora, Tourist Spot Visits, Courting Domestic Voter Base: What MPs Did Abroad The hyper-publicised seven 'all party' delegations are back home after visiting 32 countries. My former colleagues in parliament must all be tired. 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History shows that no nation has ever been conferred a place on the high table without facing initial scorn, condescension and trial by fire. England, for instance, was just pooh-poohed as a nation of shopkeepers until Poseidon (or Varun) intervened with unruly storms in 1588, for Francis Drake to defeat the invincible Spanish Armada. But, England continued to face ridicule from the continental powers that dominated land warfare and its conquests in India and elsewhere attributed to a cocktail of fluke and bribery. It was only after Wellington managed to defeat Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, with dollops of timely assistance from Field Marshal Blucher and his merciless Prussian cavalry that England mattered. If we look intently at each one of the other nations of G7, we will understand how much blood and gore they have gone through in the past centuries. In fact, the dropped-out eighth nation, Russia, alone has witnessed more death and devastation than any other country. What is more relevant is that the entire population of these nations was involved and every village lost her sons. There was, therefore, no time for pampered citizens to indulge in warmongering from air-conditioned homes. Those mercenary TV anchors who won imaginary victories in Pakistan (and their counterparts there) have brought shame to the profession and are now a laughing stock among informed global citizens. India's isolation is a current reality and while we break out of it with all we have in us, we must also realise that 'demeaning an upstart' is left-handed recognition. The rest of the nation's journey up is long, perilous and, hopefully, less violent. Jawhar Sircar is a former Rajya Sabha MP of the Trinamool Congress. He was earlier Secretary, Government of India, and CEO of Prasar Bharati.

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40 minutes ago

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