Modi begins 9-day visit to Central Asia, Russia

By
Daily Excelsior
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NEW DELHI :  Prime Minister Narendra Modi today begins his visit to five Central Asian nations and Russia, where he will participate in the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.
The Prime Minister would be going to Ufa for BRICS after visiting two Central Asian countries, and on his way back, he will be visiting three other Central Asian countries. He is the first Indian Prime Minister to cover the entire Central Asian region in a single trip with his stay in every country not going beyond 24 hours.
On July 6-7, Mr Modi will be in Uzbekistan and on July 7-8 in Kazakhstan before flying to Ufa, an eastern city of Russia where he will hold hectic parleys during and on the sidelines of the 7th BRICS summit and the SCO Summit.
On his way back from Ufa, he will be visiting Turkmenistan (July 10-11), Kyrgyzstan (July 11-12) and Tajikistan (July12-13).           On the first leg of the visit, Mr Modi will reach Uzbekistan, which is the most populous country in Central Asia. India and Uzbekistan enjoy a close strategic partnership.
In Uzbekistan, he would be holding talks with President Islam Karimov . Then, they would witness the inking of key agreements to strengthen cooperation between the countries.           “We want to expand our economic ties with Uzbekistan and enhance trade and economic linkages,” the Prime Minister said, prior to his departure.
Uzbek President Karimov has visited India five times, including four times as President, with the last visit taking place in 2011.
Interestingly Indian movies, language and music are very popular in Uzbekistan. In fact, the Uzbek radio completed 50 years of Hindi broadcasting in 2012. During this visit he would be interacting with Indologists, students learning Hindi and members of the Indian community. There are over 3000 Indians in Uzbekistan.
During his stay in Uzbekistan, Mr Modi will pay tributes to late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri who died due to cardiac arrest under suspicious circumstances in Tashkent in 1966.  (AGENCIES)

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