India, Kyrgyztan to boost defence, IT, security

New Delhi:  Injecting fresh momentum in ties, India and Kyrgyztan on Tuesday firmed up broad contours of a bilateral investment agreement and inked six other pacts covering a range of areas even as they resolved to work closely to combat the challenge of terrorism, extremism and radicalism.
In their comprehensive talks, Prime Minister Narendra  Modi and Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev also decided to strengthen ties in areas of defence,  security, mining, IT, agriculture and energy.
“We discussed how we could work together to secure our youth and society against common challenges of terrorism, extremism, and radicalism. We agreed on the need to coordinate and work closely in addressing and overcoming these challenges for our common benefit,” Modi said in a media statement.
During the deliberations, the two leaders reviewed the “cooperative engagement” in defence with Modi calling the Kyrgyz-India Mountain Bio-Medical Research Center as an excellent example of successful collaboration.
Modi said work on a Kyrgyz-India Joint Military Training Center in Kyrgyztan has commenced. Besides joint military exercises, the two countries have been cooperating on high-mountain biomedical research to know impact on soldiers when they carry out operations at high altitude.
Aiming to broaden economic engagement, the two sides initialled a bilateral investment agreement.
The six MoUs will provide for deeper cooperation in areas of agriculture, tourism, culture, broadcasting and youth affairs.
A joint statement said the two leaders noted the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism globally as well as in the Asian continent, and emphasised the importance of ensuring a stable and secure environment for peaceful economic development.
“In this context, they also called for the adoption by the United Nations of the draft Comprehensive Convention on Combating International Terrorism,” it said.
In his comments, Atambayev said he was not happy over the current volume of bilateral trade and that there was huge untapped potential for its expansion. Calling for further strengthening of ties, he said both countries were binded by historical links and common values like democracy and freedom of rights.
Talking about cultural links, he mentioned about popularity of Bollywood legend Raj Kapoor.
On economic engagement, Modi said both sides agreed to connect each other’s economies “more deeply”, adding industry and businesses will be encouraged to play a leading role in exploiting the untapped opportunities.
“We will encourage industry and business on both sides to play a leading role in exploiting opportunities in healthcare, tourism, information technology, agriculture, mining and energy. “We have decided to build on our development cooperation including in capacity building and training,” he said.
After the talks, Modi presented Atambayev a book of Indian poems translated into Kyrgyz while the President gifted the Indian leader a Hindi translation of Kyrgyz epic Manas.
He called Kyrgyzstan a valuable partner in India’s common pursuit of making Central Asia a region of sustainable peace, stability and prosperity, adding the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will also give it a valuable framework to work together. (PTI)