Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will hold a virtual summit on Friday to discuss the entire spectrum of the bilateral relationship of India and the Central Asian country, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
This will be a first bilateral 'Virtual Summit' meeting between India and a Central Asian country, the MEA said in a statement on Wednesday. During the summit, several government-to-government agreements/MoUs are expected to be concluded.
"The leaders will discuss the entire spectrum of the bilateral relationship, including the strengthening of India-Uzbekistan cooperation in the post-Covid world. They will also exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest," the statement read.
Sources on Thursday said that several MoUs/Agreements in the field of the development partnership, renewable energy, capacity building, etc, are expected to be signed during the summit, adding that the bilateral summit provides an opportunity to both sides to further enhance their strategic partnership through high-level political contacts, strengthen defence and security cooperation, enhance development partnership and work on connectivity initiatives. India and Uzbekistan declared their Strategic Partnership in 2011. The sources said that Central Asia is India's 'extended neighbourhood' and New Delhi's outreach to Uzbekistan is important from this perspective.
"The dynamism to this partnership was imparted by the visit of Prime Minister Modi in July 2015 when his back-to-back visit to all the five Central Asian countries demonstrated a new determination on India's part to reach out to all Central Asian countries," the sources said.
President Mirziyoyev's first and highly "successful" visit to India in October 2018 and his visit to Gandhinagar to participate in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January 2019 on the personal invitation of Prime Minister Modi "demonstrated the keenness on the part of the leaders of both the countries to strengthen the strategic partnership", they added.
On the bilateral front, the sources said that there has been a significant intensification in India's ties with Uzbekistan in recent years, due to the high-level visits from both sides. Bilateral relations now encompass a wider canvas, including on political and strategic issues, defence and security, trade and investment, energy, agriculture, S&T, education and people-to-people ties.
The bilateral trade at about USD 247 million is still well below potential, sources noted. Both leaders have therefore set a trade target of USD 1 billion.
The Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) and the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) that are under advanced stages of negotiation, the sources highlighted, adding that Indian compes have already started looking "positively" at Uzbekistan with investments of about USD 61 million in recent years, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.
An important area of cooperation in recent times has been in civil nuclear energy. India and Uzbekistan concluded the agreement on the long-term purchase of urum by India which was signed during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January 2019.
( With inputs from ANI )
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