India, Kyrgyztan ink 6 pacts, finalise investment treaty

Deepening their ties, India and Kyrgyztan on Tuesday finalised broad contours of a bilateral investment treaty and inked six other pacts covering a range of areas besides resolving to work closely to combat challenge of terrorism, extremism and radicalism.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev held comprehensive talks and agreed to step up engagement in key areas of defence, security and trade with specific focus on mining, IT, agriculture and energy.

“We discussed how we could work together to secure our youth and society against 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,” Modi said in a media statement. The Central Asian nation bordering China is strategically important for India and both countries have been steadily ramping up defence collaboration.

Modi had visited Kyrgyztan in July last year during which a pact for boosting defence cooperation was inked.

Aiming to broaden economic engagement, the two countries initialled a bilateral investment treaty which will provide protection to investors in each other’s country apart from creating enabling environment for trade to grow.

The six MoUs will provide for deeper cooperation in areas of agriculture, tourism, culture, broadcasting and youth affairs.