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Connect Central Asia Policy

26 Jul 2019
10 min read

Introduction

Central Asia is the geographical centre of Asia that marks the confluence of the world’s four religious ideologies — Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism. Modern Central Asia consists of five nations: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. All five nations became independent after the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

India and the Central Asian region share a long history. Indian subcontinent and Central Asia share lose trade and cultural linkages, whose beginnings can be traced to the Indus valley civilization. Central Asian region is considered to be the part of India’s “extended neighbourhood”.

However, soon after India's partition in 1947, its relations with the Central Asian region suffered a setback as it lost its direct overland access to the region through Afghanistan (POK captured by Pakistan).
This meant that goods from India bound for the Central Asian region, instead of going through Pakistan and Afghanistan, would have to take much longer routes which usually involved the sea route to Iran and then overland through Iran, rendering economic relations less viable.
However, after the 1971 signing of the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, friendship and cooperation and subsequent strategic convergence between India and the Soviet Union, allowed India to be able to foster closer ties with the Central Asian Republics.

Background

The region grew in strategic importance to India during the 1990s and particularly over the past decade.

Since the turn of the century, Central Asia has become increasingly important to India as a means for maintaining regional stability, especially in the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- During the 1990s Central Asia was seen as a route for supplying the anti-Taliban coalition, the Northern Alliance, in Afghanistan.
- The significance of Central Asia has grown as India has sought to diversify its energy sources by including such imports from the region.

Northern Alliance

The Afghan Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic Front for the Salvation was a united military front that was formed in late 1996 after the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) took over Kabul.
The Northern Alliance fought a defensive war against the Taliban government. They received support from Iran, Russia, Turkey, India, USA etc.
The US invaded Afghanistan, providing support to Northern Alliance troops on the ground in a two-month war against the Taliban, which they won in December 2001.
With the Taliban forced out from the control of the country, the Northern Alliance was dissolved as members and parties joined the new establishment of the Karzai administration.

In the domain of Indian foreign policy, Central Asia was focused upon under the narrative framework of the ‘Look North’ policy. However, the economic slowdown in India and global power competition in Central Asia have discouraged India from playing a major role in the region for a larger part of the 1990s.

Reinvigoration of Relations

Over the past decade, the region has become the site of great power tussles over energy resources. At the same time, the world witnessed India’s rise as an economic power and a regional power makes it important to prioritise its relations with Central Asia.

It was in this context that India formulated its Connect Central Asia Policy in 2012, which is a broad-based approach including political, security, economic, and cultural connections.