PM Modi To Visit 5 Central Asian Nations Besides Attending BRICS, SCO Meets Next Week
03 July, New Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia and five other Central Asian countries during the next week.
Apart from attending 7th BRICS summit and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet at Ufa in Russia-on 8th and 9th July, Prime Minister will also visit Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan on way to Russia, while he will visit Turkmenistan, Kirgizstan and Tajikistan before returning to Delhi.
This was announced by Navtej Singh Sarna, Secretary West of External Affairs Ministry in Delhi Friday.
Addressing to the media persons, Secretary (DPA & ER) Sujata Mehta said that Prime Minister Mr. Modi will also attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meet apart from BRICS summit in Ufa. She said that India had formally applied for membership in SCO in Sep 2014. SCO Foreign Ministers have favourably recommended regarding India’s membership to the Summit.
Ms. Sujata Mehta said that the theme of this summit is ‘BRICS partnership: A powerful factor for Global Development’. The agenda for this summit covers both political and economic issues but the emphasis is on the economic cooperation.
She said that the setting up of the New Development Bank (NDB) by the BRICS member countries was an important achievement. The first meeting of its board of governors will be held in Moscow on 7th July.
On the question relating to China promoted AIIB and BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), she said that the agenda of NDB was much broader in comparison to AIIB which focussed on infrastructure related issues. The BRICS summit is also likely to discuss the intra-BRICS trade in the respective currencies of the country to further improve trade between member countries.
Trade associations from India such as FICCI and CII are also taking business delegations to the BRICS meeting in Russia. The National Security Advisors (NSA) of the BRICS countries will meet and discuss their respective areas of work. The spokesperson however refused to confirm that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be meeting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of SCO meeting in Ufa.
On Prime Minister’s visit to five Central Asian countries, Secretary West of External Affairs Ministry Navtej Singh Sarna said that improving the surface connectivity between India and the central Asian countries would be an important issue for discussion during the visit.
He said that issues relating to trade and investment, energy security, regional stability and counter terrorism mechanism would also be part of the discussion during the visit.
Calling these countries as the extended neighbourhood of India, the spokesperson said that India shares historical and cultural ties going back to more than 2500 years with these countries which would be further strengthened after the Prime Minister’s visit.
It is for the first time that an Indian Prime Minister is visiting all the five central Asian countries together. Among other regional and bilateral issues, the TAPI gas pipeline would also be discussed during the visit of the Prime Minister. A new thrust is likely to be given to the North South corridor that was started a few years back.