PM’s press statement during the state visit of President of Republic of Kyrgyzstan to India

Your Excellency Mr. Almazbek Atambayev President of the Kyrgyz Republic, Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Media, I am delighted to welcome President Almazbek Atambayev on his first state visit to India. Excellency, the warmth of your hospitality and welcome during my visit to the Kyrgyz Republic in July last year is still fresh in my mind. Your visit this time helps us to carry forward the momentum of our cooperation and high level contacts. The relationship between India and the Kyrgyz Republic is filled with goodwill from centuries of shared historical links. Our societies share a sense of warmth that permeates our contacts with Central Asia, including the Kyrgyz Republic. We are also bound by a common belief in democratic values and traditions. Much credit goes to President Atambaev for nurturing and building strong foundations of democracy in Kyrgyz Republic. Friends, President Atambayev and I held extensive discussions on the full range of our bilateral engagement. We focused on our common priority of diversifying and deepening bilateral engagement. 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. We regard Kyrgyz Republic as a valuable partner in our common pursuit of making Central Asia a region of sustainable peace, stability and prosperity. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization will also give us a valuable framework to work together on these issues. Friends, President Atambayev and I reviewed our cooperative engagement in the defence field. The Kyrgyz-India Mountain Bio-Medical Research Center is an excellent example of successful collaboration. It has proved to be a rewarding research initiative, which we need to build on. We have commenced work on a Kyrgyz-India Joint Military Training Center in Kyrgyz Republic. 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. Friends, President Atambayev and I agreed on the need to connect our economies more deeply. To this end, 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. We have decided to build on our development cooperation including in capacity building and training. People have been at the center of such initiatives. We shall give special emphasis to youth exchanges in our technical and economic cooperation programme with Kyrgyz Republic. The understandings concluded today will support our thrust in these directions. In a first with the Central Asian region, we had initiated tele-medicine links with Kyrgyz Republic last year. We are taking steps to expand this project to other regions of the Kyrgyz Republic. Friends, India and the Kyrgyz Republic will be marking the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries in March 2017. As we approach this milestone, President Atambayev’s visit to India will drive the process and our efforts of deepening our partnership. It will also help consolidate the recent gains in our engagement and reinforce our ties in the months and years ahead. I wish President Atambaev a memorable and productive visit in India. Thank You Thank you very much