External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar made a 4-day official visit to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Armenia from 10-13 October 2021, to further expand bilateral ties between the three Central Asian nations and discussed key regional issues including the developments in Afghanistan.
Kyrgyzstan:
i.During 10-11 October, the EAM visited Kyrgyzstan, this is his 1st visit to the country as External Affairs Minister.
ii.He had a bilateral meeting with the Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan Ruslan Kazakbaev and agreed to provide a USD 200 million Line of Credit to support the development of High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDP) in Kyrgyzstan.
iii.He also called on Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov and discussed how to expand the economy between the two nations.
iv.He released a dictionary of common words in Hindi and Kyrgyz languages along with the Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan.
Kazakhstan:
i.The EAM visited Kazakhstan on 11-12 October and addressed the 6th Ministerial meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures (CICA) 2021 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
ii.Kazakhstan is the current Chair and initiator of the CICA Forum, EAM mentioned the forum’s relevance in addressing contemporary challenges, including terrorism, pandemic.
- On the sidelines of the CICA Forum, EAM met counterparts (Foreign affairs ministers) of Russia (Sergey Lavrov), Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and discussed issues of bilateral and regional cooperation.
Armenia:
i.EAM visited Armenia from 12-13 October. It was the first-ever visit of an EAM of India to independent Armenia.
ii.He had meetings with Ararat Mirzoyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and also called on Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia and Alen Simonyan, Speaker of National Assembly of Armenia.
iii.EAM visited the National Gallery of Armenia, which contains fresco versions of select Ajanta Cave paintings by Sarkis Katchadourian (Armenian Artist).
Recent Related News:
Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi visited the United States of America (USA) from 22 to 25 September 2021 and participated in the 1st in-person QUAD Leaders’ Summit in Washington D.C., the USA, along with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and US President Joe Biden.
About Kyrgyzstan:
Capital – Bishkek
President – Sadyr Japarov
Currency – Kyrgyzstani som
About Kazakhstan:
Capital – Nur-Sultan
Currency – Kazakhstani tenge
President – Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
