The Strategy of (Re) Connectivity: Revisiting India's Multifaceted Relations with Central Asia
Contents: Foreword. The Significance of India’s (Re)connectivity Strategy in Central Asia: An Introduction/Agnieszka Kuszewska and Kashif Hasan Khan. 1. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): Comparative Perspectives on India and Central Asia/Sadananda Sahoo. 2. Prospects, threats and challenges of India’s ‘Connect Central Asia’ policy in the current international security context/Agnieszka Kuszewska. 3. India’s Connectivity Push and Road to Central Asia/Poonam Mann. 4. The Importance of India for Multi-Vector Foreign Policy of Kyrgyzstan/Halim Nezihoglu. 5. Milieu of National Initiatives: Perspective on Cross Leveraging India and Central Asia Relations- A Case Study of Uzbekistan/Bilal Bhat. 6. Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki of Osh (1173–1235) and the Indo-Kyrgyz Sufi-trajectory/Mohd. Sanaullah. 7. South, East and Central Asia: A Dialogue of Cultures through Silk Route/Ranjana Banerjee. 8. Historical Bonds and Common Words Between Hindi and Turkmen/Meretguly Gurbanov.
Central Asia has re-surfaced as a crucial point of reference in the international, geostrategic power rivalry or a “new Great Game,” with Russia, China and the US vying over security and energy interests in the region. It has immensely attracted the attention of other important regional players such as Turkey and Pakistan. For India, an emerging power with regional and global ambitions, Central Asia plays tremendously important role, as its ‘extended neighbourhood’. Strategically positioned Central Asia with its rich resources, relatively advanced infrastructure, human capital and recently introduced economic reforms, is an attractive partner for India. Therefore, New Delhi, with its growing aspirations, undertakes various initiatives to reconstruct the ancient connections with Central Asian states and adjust them to the new geostrategic realities of the 21st century.
The book discusses the issues which are vital to Central Asian Republics and to India, including the threats they face, such as terrorism, fundamentalism and its consequences. It touches upon the China’s regional aspirations and objectives, including the massive BRI initiative (Belt and Road), discusses the challenges of (lack of) territorial connectivity between India and Central Asian Republics, the interests of other great powers, etc. This publication analyses various aspects of historical background, presents some literary discourses, while thoroughly referring to the contemporary strategic, socio-political and economic dynamics of the region.
