Building up connections in Central Asia

The first virtual engagement between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and presidents of the five Central Asian countries on January 27 comes at a time of widening security faultlines in Eurasia and common geostrategic and geoeconomic challenges from a volatile Afghanistan for both India and Central Asia. The global power contestation in Central Asia has only added to the significance of the summit this week. 

Since 1991, New Delhi’s ties with the Central Asian countries have developed slowly despite a shared culture and trade links via the ancient Silk Road. The emergence of the nation-states with differing ideologies and the partition of