New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in India on Tuesday morning after his successful visit of five Central Asian nations and Russia. In Central Asia, the Prime Minister visited Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, while he participated in the BRICS and SCO summits during his visit of Ufa, Russia. Among the five Central Asian nations, Prime Minister Modi’s first visit was to Uzbekistan where he held talks with President Karimov and inked key agreements to strengthen cooperation with India.
In Kazakhstan, Prime Minister Modi met President Nazarbayev and Prime Minister Karim Massimov, whom he met briefly in Singapore in March this year. He also held delegation level talks with President Nazarbayev followed by the signing of documents and a joint press statement. In Turkmenistan, the Prime Minister proposed that the country becomes a member of the International North South Transport Corridor. He also inaugurated a statue of Mahatma Gandhi and a Traditional Medicine and Yoga Centre in the country and laid wreath at the Mausoleum of the First President.
His visit to the country was the first by an Indian Prime Minister after PV Narasimha Rao’s visit in 1995. Prime Minster Modi’s fourth visit was to Kyrgyzstan which was the first Prime Ministerial visit in 20 years. The Prime Minister’s last visit was to Tajikistan which was last visited by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in November 2003. Meanwhile, in Russia, Prime Minister Modi was a part of various interactions of BRICS leaders with captains of industry and leaders of other invited states. He also held bilateral talks with several heads of state, including the presidents of Iran and Afghanistan Hassan Rouhani and Ashraf Ghani as well as Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
