India, Kyrgyzstan finalise bilateral investment treaty

India and Kyrgyzstan inked six pacts and moved closer to signing a Bilateral Investment Treaty as Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosts President of Central Asian nation, Almazbek Atambayev.

Modi and Atambayev on Tuesday agreed to give a fillip to trade and economic relations between India and Kyrgyzstan, apart from stepping up defence and counter-terrorism cooperation.

“We will work to strengthen bilateral trade and economic linkages, and facilitate greater people-to-people exchanges. 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,” Modi told journalists, after a meeting with the Kyrgyzstan President.

Atambayev is currently on a visit to New Delhi. He is the second Central Asian leader to visit India. Modi last week hosted Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon in New Delhi.

“We also discussed how we could work together to secure our youth and society against the 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.

Modi and Atambayev witnessed the signing of an agreement and five Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for bilateral cooperation in the field of tourism, agriculture and food industry, sports and youth affairs, training of diplomats and broadcasting. The two nations also initialled a Bilateral Investment Treaty, moving closer to signing it.

The joint statement issued after the Modi-Atambayev meeting noted that India and Kyrgyzstan were jointly constructing the Kyrgyz-Indian Mountain Training Centre in the city of Balykchy, in Issyk-Kul district of Kyrgyzstan. The centre will provide instruction and training for personnel of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic as well as host Kyrgyz-Indian joint mountain training exercises, it added.

“Our joint military exercises on counter-terrorism are now an annual feature. The next edition has been planned for first quarter of next year in Kyrgyz Republic,” Modi said, referring to “Khanjar” series of India-Kyrgyzstan military exercises. The "Khanjar-II” exercises were held in March 2015 in Kyrgyzstan, "Khanjar III” in March-April 2016 in Gwalior, India. The "Khanjar-IV” exercises are scheduled to be held in Kyrgyzstan in February-March 2017.