India and Central Asia Defence Cooperation Challenges and Opportunities

• Published in: Indian foreign affairs journal : a quarterly of the Association of Indian Diplomats Vol. 16; no. 4; pp. 331 - 340
• Main Author: Gupta, Pravesh Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi Prints Publications Pvt Ltd 01.10.2021; Prints Publications Pvt. Ltd
• Subjects: Clergy; Cooperation; Councils; Defense spending; Diplomatic & consular services; International trade; Leadership; Manufacturing; Military exercises; Military medicine; Military training; Prime ministers; Regional security; Statistics; Afghanistan; Iran; United States > US; Uzbekistan; Central Asia; Kazakhstan; Turkmenistan; Tajikistan; Kyrgyzstan; Russia; India
• ISSN: 0973-3248

[...]in February 2020, the India-Central Asia Business Council (ICABC) was established to address the concerns surrounding the low volume of trade and investment between the two regions. Despite significant fluctuations in recent years, Tajikistan's military spending tended to rise from 1998 to 2021, reaching US$ 82 million.3 Uzbekistan's military spending increased by 2,560.79 percent between 2003 and 2018, from US$ 54 million to US$ 1,440 million.4 Given recent developments in relations between India and Central Asia, the defence sector has a lot of growth opportunities. [...]in addition to training and exercises, joint defence production, military medicine, and other types of expanded defence cooperation are now required. According to the statistics, bilateral trade in 2019-20 totalled US$ 2.45 billion, representing a 188.56 percent growth from the previous year.5 It is worth noting that, as of 2020, around 700 legal firms and branches with Indian capital participation are registered in Kazakhstan.