Incidentally the Afghan President Hamid Karzai is now in Delhi to discuss the issue with the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. India has already discussed the Afghan issue with the visiting Chinese premier Li Keqiang and both India and China in a joint statement “reiterated their support for an 'Afghan-led, Afghan-owned” reconciliation process and their commitment to working with regional countries and the international community to help Afghanistan achieve its objective of peace, stability, independence and development at an early date.”

Beijing is slated to host the next meeting of the Istanbul Process on Afghanistan in 2014.

Ansari is slated to call on the Uzbek President Islam Karimov. He will meet the Chairman of the Uzbek Senate Sobirov who would a banquet in his honour and accompany him throughout the visit. He will also meet the Speaker of the Lower House of Uzbek Parliament and discuss issues of parliamentary cooperation between the two countries. The Uzbek Minister for Foreign Economic Relations Ganiyev will call on the Indian Vice President.

Apart from bilateral cooperation, Ansari is slated to discuss global and regional cooperation including the Afghan issue with the Uzbek leadership.
This is the first ever visit by a Vice President of India to Uzbekistan.

Ansari is accompanied by his wife Salma Ansari, Indian Minister for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natrajan and four Members of Parliament. Apart from Tashkent, he will visit Samarkand and Bukhara where he will meet regional heads of these two provinces.

Uzbekistan is strategically placed north of Afghanistan and west of China. It is placed in the heart of Central Asia and shares borders with all other Central Asian countries and about 200 km border with Afghanistan. India has signed Strategic Partnership Agreement with Uzbekistan on the visit of the Uzbek President Karimov. India has signed 87 documents with Uzbekistan which form a framework and legal basis for cooperation.

Ansari is likely to discuss the issue of counter-terrorism with the Uzbek leadership, particularly the presence of radical elements like Islamic Movement of Turkistan and Hizb-ut-Tahir who have found shelter in the region and may pose a threat to Afghanistan and India.

Uzbekistan just in terms of context has been a member of the Northern Distribution Network or it has provided its territory for this Northern Distribution Network which takes care of the reverse flow of the ISAF non-lethal cargo. As much as 60% it is using this trans-Afghan route through the border town of Termiz up into Russia and the Russian ports.

India has ongoing dialogue with Uzbekistan on using trans-Afghan borders for promoting connectivity to Central Asia. This includes development of a part of the Chabahar port in Iran and some jetties. This is a medium-term project. Connectivity with Central Asia is contingent on also a railway project which is being developed by Iran which is going to be a connection from Chabahar North to Zahedan and Mashhad in the North and from there the Uzbek Railways has already developed a connection of 75 km from the town Termiz to Mazar-e-Sharif. There are plans to extend this connectivity to a little west to Heart, and eventually the Iranian Railway and the Uzbek connection would connect. This rail connectivity which would allow a container to be loaded from Mumbai, reach Chabahar and then be transported into Afghanistan and Central Asia.

India has executed in Afghanistan the transmission line which essentially brings Uzbek power into Kabul. This is a transmission line built by India from the border town of Termiz which is the opening of Afghanistan to the outside world, the bridge on the Amu Darya to Pul-e-Kumri town to Kabul. This is an instance of India and Uzbekistan cooperation.

Recently India eliminated all custom duties for entry of Afghan goods into a billion plus market. India has planned investment in the Hajigak iron ore mines with the intention not only to evacuate iron ore but also to construct Afghanistan’s first steel plant.

Among other India’s development projects in Afghanistan include the road from Zaranj to Delaram, the 220 kW transmission line from Pul-e-Kumri to Kabul, bilateral capacity-building programme where about 2000 Afghans are trained in various aspects of capacity building every year in India, humanitarian assistance in terms of wheat exports in the biscuits and important infrastructure programmes such as the Salma Dam and the building of the Parliament.

Afghanistan has already asked for assistance in terms of supply of lethal and non-lethal weapons from India. Sources in the Indian External Affairs Ministry, however, do not deny this possibility but say “there is a mechanism to deal with this issue.”

India is already helping to train Afghan forces. India and Afghanistan have signed a mutual Strategic Partnership Agreement which deals with various sectors. Under this agreement Strategic Partnership Council has been set up co-chaired by the External Affairs Minister of India and Foreign Minister of Afghanistan. This Council which met in New Delhi in summer last year has four subgroups namely on political and security issues, economy and trade, project development, human resources development and capacity building.

Sources say that the Afghan request for supply of lethal and non-lethal arms needs to be discussed in the Strategic Council.

Uzbekistan’s support as a regional player is important for India. There has been high level contacts between India and Uzbekistan. Uzbek President first visited India in 1991 as Communist Party President. Thereafter he visited India in 1994, 2000, 2005 and 2011. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru accompanied by his daughter Indira Gandhi visited Uzbekistan in 1955 and 1961. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri visited Tashkent in 1966 where he passed away. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao visited Uzbekistan in 1993 and the present Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh visited Uzbekistan in 2006.

India-Uzbekistan bilateral trade is in the vicinity of about $200 million with the balance of trade in favour of India. India’s major exports are drugs and pharmaceuticals. By various estimates, about 40% of the pharmaceutical imports of Uzbekistan are from India. There are 15 pharmaceutical companies from India which have offices or representative offices in Uzbekistan.

Under the ITEC scheme India provide 150 scholarships for Uzbek nationals and these are utilized fully every year. In terms of air connectivity, there are 15 direct flights between India and Uzbekistan, and there is discussion between the two countries for increasing the frequency of flights.