Foreign Minister Jaishankar advocates use of digital tech to enhance trade with Central Asia
This story was originally published at 21:35 IST on 5 June 2025
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NEW DELHI – External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday expressed the intent to partner with Central Asian economies on digital platforms like Unified Payments Interface and Aadhaar to enhance trade and economic ties. He underlined that greater use of digital technology and artificial intelligence applications will help unlock the full potential of trade.
"...We are meeting at a time when E-commerce platforms, blockchains, cross-border digital payments are transforming the way the world interacts, trades and effects payments and India would be very happy to partner on platforms like the UPI, like Aadhaar, like DigiLocker with our Central Asian partners," Jaishankar said at India-Central Asia Business Council event in New Delhi. The event was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu, Kyrgyz Republic Foreign Affairs Minister Zheenbek Kulubaev, Tajikistan Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Turkmenistan Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Saidov Bakhtiyor Odilovich.
The Indian foreign minister underlined that the trade and economic ties with Central Asia have shown a "strong positive trend" over the past decade. He said that the "trade volume" with Central Asian countries is collectively touching almost $2 billion.
Jaishankar also stressed upon the need for diversification of trade with Central Asian countries and asserted that "looking beyond the currently traded goods and services is essential to envisage and realise new opportunities."
"I would like our friends from central Asian economies to appreciate that an economy today which is in excess of $4 trillion, which is growing at 6-8% annually, it will create new demands for products, for services... there are many things we could be doing we should be doing which perhaps we have not looked at in the past," he said.
Jaishankar highlighted three objectives, including to deepen existing cooperation and introduce greater sustainability and more predictability in economic interaction.
The foreign affairs minister also stressed on improving connectivity with Central Asian countries to further deepen trade ties. "I here talk about both land and air connectivity, so what this means is more resources and effort in the INSTC(International North South Transport Corridor), greater use of Chabahar port will surely reduce travel distance and costs. ...we need to expand our air services and we need to create competitive environment for goods transportation," Jaishankar said. End
US$1 = INR 85.79
Reported by Kuldeep Singh
Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj
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