NEW DELHI: The second India-Central Asia Dialogue was held virtually on Wednesday where the leaders reviewed the relations between India and Central Asian countries.
It also condemned terrorism while reaffirming to fight it by destroying their, networks and funding channels.
“The ministers strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and reaffirmed the determination of their countries to combat this menace by destroying terrorist safe-havens, networks, infrastructure and funding channels. They also underlined the need for every country to ensure that its territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks against other countries,” a statement released after meeting stated.
While the Central Asian countries were represented by Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tleuberdi, Foreign Minister of Tajikistan Sirodjiddin Muhriddin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov, Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov, First Deputy Foreign Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic Nuran Niyazaliev, the Indian side was represented by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan also attended the meeting as a special invitee. Saying that India considers Central Asia to be its extended neighbourhood, Jaishankar said, “We share a common geography which facilitated continuous exchange of people, ideas and goods in both directions and left indelible imprints on our customs, traditions and languages.”
“We also share commonality of views on various regional and international issues. We face common challenges of terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and such other issues. All these commonalities make us a natural partner in our developmental journey,” he said and announced an additional USD 1 billion Line of Credit for Central Asian countries.