INDIAN FOREIGN POLICY : INDIA CENTRAL ASIA RELATINOS

India Central Asia Relatinos

·        Historical events between India & Central Asia

·        India-Kazakhstan Relations

·        India-Tajikistan Relations

·        India and Turkmenistan Relations

·        Central Asia Crisis Ethnic flare up

·        Security Dynamics in Central Asia and implication for India.

• Geo-political, Geo-strategic and Geo-economic and Importance  of Central Asia to India
• Current observation of Central Asia A regional Challenges and Prospects .
• Oil Diplomacy and Central Asia

Current observation of Central Asia A regional Challenges and Prospects
Challenges	Prospects
1.   Informal barriers are high in central Asia Region.	Adoption of new policies to formalize the bariens with CAR.
2.   Current delays by other border agencies can be significantly more than customs.	Increasing supervision and contrail of border agencies to case delays.
3.   Elimination of delays requires careful assessment.	There has been some improvements in overall delays by new staff training and use of technology.
4.   Measurement should be continued on a system basis.	International organization are trying to establish a new measurement systems in CAC

Oil Diplomacy and Central Asia

Central Asia regained global strategic importance in 1991 after the collapse of the soviet Union allowed energy companies around the world to compete for the region’s vast oil and gas resources the United States, Russia and China have become the three main forces competing for influence in Central Asia.

     

Major Player	U.S, Russia and China
U.S	The U.S is leading the charge with its oil-driven polices.
Russia	Russia consolidated its presence by signing multibillion dollar deals on oil exploration with former soviet republics.
China	China has invested millions of dollars in the hydrocarbon sector.

As the global race for scarce energy resources intensifies India increasingly looks to Central Asia as a reliable source of oil and natural gas as well as a focus of its strategic interests in Asia.

Geo-political, Geo-strategic and Geo-economic and Importance of Central Asia to India

·         Dealing with the multi-polar world dominated by few powerful states.

·         Coping with global economic changes;

·         Tackling ethnic and cultural diversity associated with ethno-nationalism.

·         Multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual population, but predominantly Muslims population.

·         Abundance of oil and natural reserves and vast mineral and natural resources.

·         Tackling the menace of religious fundamentalism and trans-border terrorism.

·         Nation/state building and related establishment of institutions; the common thread binding India and Central Asian states is that both are ‘plural societies’, which need build a liberal, secular and democratic model.

·         It would counter balance Pakistan from using the Islamic card against India in Islamic fora.

·         It would provide opportunities for constructing oil and natural gas pipelines in the future.

·         Kazakhastan is rich in petroleum, iron ore, and other minerals.

·         Uzbekistan has large gold deposits and it is a major cotton producer; Tajikistan has large aluminum deposits.

·         Turkmenistan has large reserves of natural gas. In return, India can offer assistance in the area of automobiles, textiles, hotel industry, banking, insurance, drugs and pharmaceuticals, non-conventional sources of energy and electronics.

·         India has offered training facilities of Central Asian students.

Central Asia is full of natural resources of oil and gas. It has become geo-political and geo-strategic flashpoint for the Russia, China and the least not the least U.S. All the countries need easy and smooth supply of oil and gas for their respective national economies.

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