Indian foreign policy vis-a-vis Central Eurasia has never been of significant priority to the Indian government, when compared to its zealousness towards mending ties with its neighbours, Europe, ASEAN and US. India's foreign policy towards Central Asia has thus been defined by natural as well as man-made limitations like:
ECONOMIC AND STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE
1. Owing to the land-locked nature of the region, complemented by poor international infrastructure, plus India's hostile ties with Pakistan ( India's gateway to Central Asia) ,India could not establish adequate economic relations with the Central Asian region;
- This has forced India to look to Afghanistan, which is a war-torn country, in its endeavor to make some inroads to the central Asian region.
- Chahbahar port is also aimed to complement this effort
- Also, a smart diplomacy to improve ties with Pakistan could certainly go a long way.
2. Whatever little efforts India did make to enhance its accessibility to the Central Asian region, in the form of North-South Corridor, TAPI pipeline etc, have all been hanging fire for years now
- This was part of a multi-modal project to have access to almost entire Central Asia , all the way to Russia
3. The Competition posed by China with its expertise in developmental works has made India an unattractive choice for lending projects there.
- India's foreign policy in this regard has been of being too cautious and too slow , given the fears of financing nonviable projects
CONCLUSION:India resorted to the safe-game with regards to its foreign policy w.r.t Central Asia, given the numerous challenges it involved and India's own limitations. While it could be justified given India's position, yet the end-result is that India lost an opportunity to exploit the untapped market of Central Asia to China.
