"WE NEED TO BE MORE IMAGINATIVE IN OUR APPROACH TOWARDS CENTRAL ASIA"

Ramakant Dwivedi spoke to BW Businessworld about the highlights of his new book Indo-Kyrgyz Relations: Challenges & Opportunities, and the need for having more economic engagement with the Central Asian region despite geographical inaccessibility

- Ruhail Amin

Ramakant Dwivedi’s book Indo-Kyrgyz Relations: Challenges & Opportunities, which introduces us to important aspects of relations between India and Kyrgyzstan, was unveiled recently in New Delhi. The book takes an in-depth look at the relationship, challenges and opportunities between India and Kyrgyzstan. Dwivedi spoke to BW Businessworld about the highlights of his new book and the need for having more economic engagement with the Central Asian region. Excerpts:

What was the inspiration behind this book? 

The idea started when the Taliban took over in Afghanistan because of which there were a lot of geopolitical changes in Central Asia. Kyrgyz Republic is an important country in Central Asia and it has a common border with China. The developments taking place in Afghanistan are going to have implications for India and the Central Asian countries.

In this book, we decided to invoke the principle of bilateralism with each country rather than looking at Central Asia as a whole region. That is why the focus is on Kyrgyz Republic. Reason being that there are many nuanced approaches within the region when it comes to foreign policy, politics, economics, etc.

What are the key highlights of this book?