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Strengthening a partnership

The long-standing friendship between India and Uzbekistan was reaffirmed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Tashkent. The relationship with the peoples of Central Asia was established several hundred years before the era of conquest in the middle centuries of the second millennium. The oasis towns of this region served as important staging-points on the Silk Route through which the cultures and artefacts of South Asia were transported over great distances. Buddhism and Gandharan art once flourished in Central Asia as vigorously as in the land of their origin. Thanks to the vicissitudes of history, independent India renewed its contacts with the countries of Transoxania that had become an integral part of the Soviet system. The linkages formed at that time got loosened briefly amidst the turmoil at the end of the Cold War. Today, the mutual commitment to secularism serves as a strong binding force between the two countries that are multicultural in character. New Delhi might not endorse all the methods used by Tashkent in the drive against fundamentalist movements within the country and in the campaign against global terror. However, the Joint Working Group on Combating International Terrorism provides an important forum for the exchange of intelligence about an elusive common enemy. At one point in time, it appeared Uzbekistan would allow excessive space to a non-regional power on account of the pressures exerted by the events of September 11, 2001. Those concerns have abated with Moscow and Beijing re-emerging as Tashkent's major partners in the political and economic spheres.

Uzbekistan, which is among the world's top 10 natural gas producers and has 594 million barrels of proven oil reserves, can contribute significantly to India's efforts at achieving energy security. New Delhi should consider seriously President Islam Karimov's proposal that Indian companies make use of his country's exploration facilities and share hydrocarbon extracts on an equal basis. The countries looking for a share in the petroleum resources of Central Asia would do well to explore the possibilities of developing these resources through cooperative endeavours rather than in competition with one another. Given the challenges involved in exporting oil and gas from a landlocked region, a combined effort is certain to prove most rewarding. Mr. Singh's visit provided an opportunity for India to showcase what it could offer in exchange. It signed a memorandum of understanding to establish an Entrepreneurship Development Centre, apart from offering to set up satellite-based tele-education and tele-medicine connectivity. A centre for information technology has also been inaugurated. The decision to establish a partnership between the Delhi University and the Tashkent Institute of Oriental Studies might, at first sight, appear less substantive in this context. However, this initiative could facilitate a reaffirmation of the deep-rooted cultural bonds between India and the heart of Central Asia.

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