Loading…
The Prime Minister's departure statement, issued on 29 August 2026, sets out a visit to the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic from 29 August to 1 September 2026.
He visits Tashkent on 29-30 August for a State Visit at the invitation of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, with talks on trade and investment, digital connectivity, defence and energy, framed around the two countries' 'Viksit Bharat' and 'Yangi Uzbekistan' visions.
In Tashkent he is to visit the Shastri Memorial and the Mahatma Gandhi Centre at the Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies.
From Tashkent he travels to Bishkek at the invitation of President Sadyr Zhaparov for the 26th SCO Summit, which marks 25 years of the organisation; India has been a member since 2017.
India's stated approach at the summit rests on Security, Connectivity and Opportunity, and on a region free of terrorism, separatism and extremism; the Prime Minister will also attend the opening ceremony of the 6th World Nomad Games.
Eurasian political, economic and security grouping founded on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, growing out of the earlier 'Shanghai Five' arrangement. India and Pakistan joined as full members in 2017, Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024, taking membership to ten.
The SCO's permanent counter-terrorism organ, dealing with the grouping's declared 'three evils' of terrorism, separatism and extremism — the same three the Prime Minister's statement names.
Host of the State Visit leg. One of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world (the other being Liechtenstein), bordering Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Both major Central Asian rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, cross its territory, and the southern half of the shrinking Aral Sea lies within it.
Host of the 26th SCO Summit and of the 6th World Nomad Games. A landlocked, largely mountainous country bordering Kazakhstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, dominated by the Tian Shan range; Jengish Chokusu (Victory Peak, 7,439 m) on the China border is its highest point and Lake Issyk-Kul is the world's second-largest alpine lake by area.
Ministerial-level dialogue between India and the five Central Asian republics — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Key: The first meeting was held at Samarkand, Uzbekistan on 12-13 January 2019, co-chaired by India's External Affairs Minister and the Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, with Afghanistan attending the first two editions as a special invitee. The fourth meeting was hosted in New Delhi in June 2025.
Leaders' level engagement between India and the five Central Asian republics.
Key: The first summit was hosted by India in virtual format on 27 January 2022, attended by the Presidents of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and adopted a comprehensive Joint Declaration.
Multi-modal freight route linking the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea, Russia and northern Europe, cutting transit time and cost against the Suez route.
Key: Established by an agreement between India, Russia and Iran signed on 12 September 2000 at the Euro-Asian Conference on Transport in St Petersburg; the corridor runs roughly 7,200 km and membership has since expanded well beyond the three founders, including Central Asian states such as Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Give India sea access to Afghanistan and Central Asia bypassing Pakistan, and serve as a southern gateway for the INSTC.
Key: Located on Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan coast on the Gulf of Oman; India and Iran signed a long-term agreement in 2002 to develop it as a deep-sea port, and India has been involved in developing the Shahid Beheshti terminal.
Establish an international transport and transit corridor facilitating movement of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.
Key: Signed on 25 April 2011; India acceded on 1 February 2018. Members include Turkmenistan, Iran, Oman, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and India — Qatar, an original signatory, later withdrew.
The Tashkent Declaration is signed by Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistan's President Mohammad Ayub Khan, with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin mediating, ending the 1965 India-Pakistan war. Shastri died in Tashkent hours later — the Shastri Memorial the Prime Minister visits commemorates him.
SCO founded in Shanghai by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
India admitted as an observer to the SCO.
INSTC agreement signed by India, Russia and Iran at St Petersburg.
India and Pakistan become full members of the SCO.
India accedes to the Ashgabat Agreement.
First India-Central Asia Dialogue held at Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
First India-Central Asia Summit held in virtual format, hosted by India.
Iran joins the SCO as its ninth member, followed by Belarus as the tenth.
Prime Minister visits Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic, attending the 26th SCO Summit at Bishkek marking the organisation's 25 years.
A landlocked country has no coastline of its own. A doubly landlocked country is landlocked and every one of its neighbours is also landlocked, so reaching the open sea requires crossing at least two international borders. Only two countries in the world qualify: Uzbekistan in Central Asia and Liechtenstein in Europe. Uzbekistan's neighbours — Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan — are all landlocked, with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan touching only the Caspian, an inland sea. This geography is the entire reason connectivity dominates India's Central Asia agenda: without a sea route, trade with the region depends on corridors such as the INSTC and on port access at Chabahar.
Simple Analogy: A landlocked country is a house with no road frontage; a doubly landlocked country is one where even the neighbours have no road frontage — you must cross two properties to reach the street.
Uzbekistan sits at the centre of Central Asia, bordered by Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, with the Amu Darya and Syr Darya crossing its territory and the southern part of the Aral Sea — a lake shared with Kazakhstan and steadily shrinking — in its northwest. Its capital, Tashkent, is the venue of the State Visit and hosts the SCO's RATS Executive Committee. The Kyrgyz Republic lies to its east, bordering Kazakhstan to the north, China to the east, Tajikistan to the southeast and Uzbekistan to the west; more than 90% of its territory lies above 1,500 m in the Tian Shan and Pamir-Alay ranges. Jengish Chokusu (Victory Peak, 7,439 m) on the Chinese border is its highest point and Khan Tengri (7,010 m) stands on the Kazakh border. Lake Issyk-Kul, in the northeast, is the second-largest alpine lake in the world by area and never freezes. The capital, Bishkek, hosts the 26th SCO Summit.
The Shastri Memorial on the Prime Minister's itinerary commemorates Lal Bahadur Shastri, who signed the declaration ending the 1965 India-Pakistan war in Tashkent on 10 January 1966 and died there hours later.
Terrorism, separatism and extremism are the SCO's own formulation and the specific mandate of its Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure — the vocabulary the departure statement uses is the grouping's own.
The INSTC and Chabahar are India's alternatives to China-led connectivity in Eurasia; India is the SCO member that has consistently declined to endorse the BRI in summit documents.
Diversion of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya for irrigation shrank the Aral Sea drastically — a standard case study in environmental degradation from water diversion, and directly relevant to Uzbekistan's territory.
Hindi teaching and centres such as the Mahatma Gandhi Centre in Tashkent are instruments of cultural diplomacy in a region where India lacks a large diaspora.
GS Paper 2 > International Relations > Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India
General Awareness > International Organisations and Summits
General Awareness > Current Affairs
General Awareness > International Affairs
SCO summits, India-Central Asia connectivity and Eurasian corridors recur every year in Prelims and in GS-2 Mains questions on regional groupings.
A landlocked country all of whose neighbours are themselves landlocked; only Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein qualify.
Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, the SCO's permanent counter-terrorism organ, with its Executive Committee at Tashkent.
The SCO's highest decision-making body, which meets at the annual summit — the 26th of which is at Bishkek.
International North-South Transport Corridor, a roughly 7,200 km multi-modal route from India through Iran and the Caspian to Russia and northern Europe, agreed in 2000.
Indian foreign-policy term for regions beyond its immediate borders — including Central Asia, West Asia and Southeast Asia — that are strategically consequential to it.
A multi-sport event for traditional nomadic sports, first held at Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan in 2014; the 6th edition returns to Kyrgyzstan in 2026.