Discuss the strategic significance of Central Asia for India's foreign policy in the context of its 'Connect Central Asia' Policy.

Central Asia — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — constitutes India's "extended neighbourhood": resource-rich, landlocked, and wedged between Russia and China. India's 'Connect Central Asia' Policy, articulated at the first India–Central Asia Dialogue (2012), frames this engagement as broad-based — political, security, economic and cultural [1].

Geostrategic significance

• The region is the pivot of continental Asia; sustained Indian presence diversifies a space historically dominated by Russian influence and, more recently, Chinese connectivity finance.
• Multilateral anchoring: India engages the region through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, where leaders and Foreign Ministers meet regularly — as at the Astana SCO Summit (July 2024) [4].

Security significance

• Shared concerns over terrorism, radicalisation and instability spilling from Afghanistan make Central Asia a frontline for India's security perimeter; the policy explicitly covers military training, counter-terrorism cooperation and Afghanistan consultations [1].

Economic and energy significance

• Central Asia's hydrocarbon and mineral wealth directly serves India's energy-security and critical-minerals needs, a designated pillar of the policy [1].
• Yet the region's landlocked geography and the absence of overland access through Pakistan keep trade volumes modest, making transit corridors the decisive variable.

Institutional deepening

• The first India–Central Asia Summit (27 January 2022), hosted virtually by the Prime Minister with all five Presidents, coincided with thirty years of diplomatic relations [2][3].
• In a historic step, leaders institutionalised the Summit every two years, supported by regular Foreign, Trade and Culture Ministers' and Security Council Secretaries' meetings — converting episodic outreach into structured architecture [2].

Central Asia thus matters to India simultaneously as a security buffer, an energy reservoir and a test of its capacity to act as a continental power. Realising this potential requires converting summit-level goodwill into delivered connectivity and trade. If India sustains the institutional momentum of 2022, 'Connect Central Asia' can mature from declaratory intent into genuine strategic partnership.