By Rithvik Mathur
Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov was just in New Dehli with a high-level delegation. The four-day visit to India was aimed at facilitating further cooperation and locating further areas to collaborate in order to take the two countries’ relationship to higher levels. This is after then-President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and Indias then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh elevated the relationship to a Strategic Partnership in 2011.
Since 2011, the total trade turnover between the two countries has been growing by 50 million USD each year. Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu aims to take bilateral trade to one billion dollars by March 2018.
This visit has focused on the historical and cultural aspect of the relationship between the nations. The narrative surrounding the visit is that of strengthening the relationship between two old friends bonding over their similarities.
Indian interests
To facilitate the ease of doing business, India has asked the country to make it normatively easier to export to Uzbekistan by reducing duties, simplifying customs procedures and easing visa norms.
Goods such as footwear, engineering exports, fabrics, and makeups are some of the products that Commerce and Industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked the Uzbek delegation to reduce import duty on. Uzbek India Trading House has been constituted in India to promote trade between the two countries. India’s Commerce Minister recommended setting up and activating a private industry led Joint Business Council to develop a more wholesome business relationship that would benefit all levels of the business relationship.
The two nations agreed that transport and logistical infrastructure would be paramount to bolstering bilateral trade. To that extent, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman suggested Uzbekistan join the multilateral INSTC Agreement as a member to increased international transit cargo traffic through Iran.
The importance of improving trade relationships
This exchange must also be viewed in the context of an environment that acknowledges the importance of South-South bilateral trade. With more of the developed countries like the United States of America and European countries seeing a prolonged recession, South-South relationships are gaining importance. It is becoming more and more economically feasible to trade with emerging market economies.
To that extent, India has been trying to improve relationships with one such country: Uzbekistan. Both countries recognize the importance of this relationship. However, the geopolitical atmosphere surrounding them must also be noted. With Pakistan and Afghanistan lying in between them and resulting volatile situations, trade has been hampered. It would be prudent trade via Iran; hence, Indias suggestion of bringing Uzbekistan into the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the new nations formedlike Uzbekistanwere forced to create foreign trade relationships as they no longer enjoyed the self-sufficiency they had under the USSR. Around the same time, India also launched economic liberalization and globalization policies. Both nations diversified their trade relations and so, the trade relationship between the two was born.
Increasing geopolitical power
The complimentary nature of India’s and Uzbekistan’s economies makes it more beneficial for the two to improve their trade relationships. The only problems standing in the way are logistical issues, such as stringent norms and the distance between the two.
This meeting of the two nations has addressed both of these problems and has recognised the best method to overcome them. This is a strong step forward in building and improving trade relationships between the global south and a strong step forward in developing a more robust international standing of India. It is part of a smaller initiative that promises to bring economic prosperity and increase the geopolitical power of India.
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