India and Central Asian nation Kazakhstan are keen on additional widening defence partnership which contains joint production as properly as co-improvement. “Both India and Kazakhstan have inked a Strategic Partnership treaty in 2009, and a Defence and Military Technical cooperation 2015. The two countries have several projects in hydrocarbon, education, pharmaceutical and other sectors,” says Prof Rajan Kumar, School of International Studies, JNU.
Kazakhstan is the most resource-wealthy nation in Central Asia and is also India’s biggest trade and investment companion. Total bilateral trade amounted to USD 1.2 bn among the two nations.
In a not too long ago concluded stop by, Defence Minister of Republic of Kazakhstan Lieutenant General Nurlan Yermekbayev and defence minister Rajnath Singh discussed methods to additional strengthen bilateral defence cooperation among the two nations.
According to the Ministry of Defence, on April 9, 2021, the two ministers met in New Delhi and the concentrate of the talks was on the bilateral defence cooperation, capacity constructing, education and military workouts. And each agreed to discover the possibility of defence industrial collaboration.
The going to minister Lieutenant General Nurlan Yermekbayev expressed his country’s appreciation as the Kazakh troops are deployed as element of the Indian battalion in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The Kazakh minister, who was right here on an official stop by on the invitation of his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh, had also visited HQs 12 Corps at Jodhpur and the Longewala sector in Jaisalmer.
As has been reported earlier by TheSpuzz Online, Indian providers have been in talks with Kazakhstan defence industries for co-production and co-improvement in defence production. According to a senior officer in the Ministry of Defence, “During the recent talks between the two countries, the Central Asian nation is keen to develop joint projects with India in repair, maintenance and up gradation of military equipment.”
India-Kazakhstan Military Cooperation
According to officials, the military cooperation among the two nations has positive dynamics. Both are currently obtaining joint military Exercise KAZ-IND which is a important step towards fostering military and diplomatic ties among the two nations. And the concentrate of this drill is to train and equip the contingents to undertake joint counter insurgency and counter terrorist operations in urban and rural environments below mandate of the United Nations.
And, as reported earlier, the future editions of Exercise KAZ-IND are anticipated to witness a progressive raise in the scope and content of combined education.
How can the two nations work collectively in joint production?
The Indian armed forces are making use of weapons systems of the Soviet era, and these systems have to have up-gradation. A lot of Kazakh providers in the defence sector have experience in main naval platforms, there are immense possibilities for the Indian providers to work below a joint venture for the production of torpedoes, and other associated systems. The Kazakh providers also have experience in the platforms becoming applied by the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force.
Last October, a webinar among India and Kazakhstan was held which focussed on defence cooperation among the two nations and was organized below the aegis of Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence and sector body FICCI. BEL had announced its plans to open a representative workplace in Kazakhstan.
Many Indian providers like Ashok Leyland Limited, Zen Technologies, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Alpha Design Technologies and Bharat Electronics Limited. Had created item presentations on main platforms/gear like Artillery Systems, Radars, Protected Vehicles, Missiles and Air Defence Equipments, and Training Solutions and so forth.
Space Cooperation
Both nations are in discussion on the possibility of building a space communication program (satellite) KazSat-2R. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Space Agency of Kazakhstan are in discussions to create a satellite jointly and a feasible launch by way of the agency later on. Kazakhstan is host to the renowned Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Expert View on India-Kazakh Bilateral Relations & Central Asian nations
According to Prof Rajan Kumar, “The spectacle of great power politics is so tempting that we often belittle the significance of smaller countries in our extended neighbourhood. Hyper-media obsession with the US, China and Russia pushes the news item from these countries to the margins. Central Asian states figure in our mainstream media only when there is a summit meeting or some major violence in one of these states.”
“This is ironic because the kind of trust and goodwill that India generates in these states barely reflects in our consciousness here. The states of Central Asia share history, culinary tradition, literature and culture with India, but somehow we haven’t built up further on the soft power that exists,” he observes.
“The space of Central Asia is vital to India’s interests in the long-run. Russia is the source of political stability and security, but in the last two decades China has become the main investor through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Located in the middle of China and Europe, these states provide the necessary link to China’s road project. Initially, China focussed on security and acquiring hydrocarbon resources from these states, but in the last few years it has diversified to infrastructural and manufacturing activities. Kazakhstan is the main beneficiary of China’s BRI project. President Xi Jinping’s first and famous ‘Silk Road Speech” was delivered at Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev University in 2013,” Prof Rajan Kumar adds.
In his opinion, “India’s economic activities in Central Asia have been hampered by the absence of land-access, resource constraints, great-power politics and slow implementation of the projects. We visualised the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI), and the North South Transport Corridor projects long before China’s BRI, but our progress has been disappointing. Pakistan will never allow India the land-route access to Central Asia and our route through Chabahar and Bandar Abbas (Iran) has also been impacted due to the American sanctions. With the increasing influence of China on Iran, India will find it harder to develop its projects there.”
“There is a need to enhance people-to-people cooperation with Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states. Acquiring a visa becomes a major hassle for academic communities, experts, businesspersons and tourists. The respective embassies of Central Asia and India should ease the visa-rules and ensure hassle-free travel to legitimate people. Travellers after all become the carriers of culture and tradition without a cost,” Prof Rajan concludes.