India and Uzbekistan
Introduction: The Civilisational Heart of Central Asia
If Kazakhstan is the region’s giant and Turkmenistan its energy vault, Uzbekistan is its civilisational and demographic heart. The most populous of the five republics, it sits at the very centre of Central Asia — between the great rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya — and is home to the legendary Silk Route cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent.
Blessed with fertile land, it is a major cotton and wheat producer, while its eastern Fergana Valley is rich in minerals. For India, Uzbekistan combines deep historical resonance with tangible modern value in energy, textiles and security.
The bond carries unusual emotional weight. Uzbekistan is the ancestral homeland of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire, giving the two countries a shared civilisational lineage.
India established diplomatic relations in the early 1990s, and in 2011 the two became Strategic Partners. Since a reformist leadership took charge in Tashkent, the relationship has gained fresh momentum across trade, defence and connectivity.
| Country Snapshot: Uzbekistan Geography — the populous heart of Central Asia, between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya; doubly landlocked. Resources — fertile cotton and wheat lands; the mineral-rich Fergana Valley; uranium, natural gas and gold. Heritage — the Silk Route cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent; ancestral home of Babur. Politics — a reformist ‘New Uzbekistan’ under President Mirziyoyev, opening the economy and society. Ties with India — diplomatic relations from the early 1990s; Strategic Partnership since 2011. |
Historical and Diplomatic Foundations
Few Central Asian relationships are as rich in history. The Silk Route bound the two lands for centuries, and the connection deepened with Babur, who journeyed from the Fergana Valley to found the Mughal Empire in India — making Uzbekistan, in a real sense, part of India’s own historical story.
The literary bridge is embodied by Amir Khusrau, the great poet of the Delhi Sultanate whose Persian-Turkic heritage links the two cultures. Cultural cooperation under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations has been active since the 1990s, with a cultural centre in Tashkent and an IT centre at Tashkent University.
The city of Tashkent itself holds a special place in India’s memory: it was here, in 1966, that the Tashkent Declaration between India and Pakistan was signed after the 1965 war — and here that Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri passed away.
In the bilateral context, a separate India–Uzbekistan Tashkent Declaration was concluded during a visit by then-President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, marking a milestone in modern ties. Relations were elevated to a Strategic Partnership in 2011, providing the framework for today’s broad engagement.
Significance of Uzbekistan for India
Uzbekistan’s value to India is unusually multidimensional — cultural, economic, energy-related and strategic — and the strands reinforce one another.
- Regional centrality: as the populous, centrally located heart of Central Asia, Uzbekistan is a natural hub for India’s engagement with the whole region.
- Energy and minerals: uranium for India’s civil-nuclear programme, along with natural gas and gold, make it an important resource partner.
- Textiles and cotton: a major cotton producer inviting foreign investment in textiles — a natural fit for Indian industry.
- Counter-terrorism: the Fergana Valley’s history of extremism gives shared security cooperation real urgency and substance.
- A reforming partner: the reformist ‘New Uzbekistan’ has opened up trade, investment and connectivity, widening the scope for cooperation.
Areas of Cooperation
Engagement is broad and balanced, spanning commerce, energy, defence and culture. The table maps the pillars.
| Pillar | Key Elements |
| Commercial | Inter-Governmental Commission (IGC, 1992); Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement; lines of credit; IT and pharma cooperation; textiles (Spandex); IL-78 aircraft purchase; chemical-sector support |
| Energy & Nuclear | Long-term natural-uranium supply; joint natural-gas exploration; gold |
| Defence & Security | DUSTLIK joint military exercise; joint working group on terrorism; MoUs on defence cooperation and cyber security |
| Connectivity | Ashgabat Agreement; India–Central Asia transit and trade corridors |
| Culture | ICCR cultural centre in Tashkent; Babur and Amir Khusrau heritage; decades of Hindi broadcasting on Uzbek Radio |
Commercial Diplomacy
Commercial ties are among the most developed in the region. An Inter-Governmental Commission (IGC) was set up in 1992, and a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement underpins investment. India extends lines of credit and cooperates strongly in the IT and pharmaceutical sectors, with many Indian firms present in the country.
India exports pharmaceuticals, meat and coal tar and imports fertilisers, silk, pulses and spices. Textiles is a flagship area: Uzbekistan is a major cotton producer courting textile FDI, the Indian firm Spandex is a significant player, and a 2011 MoU was signed to enhance cotton and textile cooperation.
India has also helped develop Uzbekistan’s chemical sector and purchased six Ilyushin-78 (IL-78) aircraft from the Tashkent Aviation Production Association.
Energy and Nuclear Cooperation
Energy has become a strategic pillar. Uzbekistan is a source of natural uranium for India’s civil-nuclear programme — the two concluded a long-term supply contract for uranium ore concentrates — and the sides have pursued joint exploration and development of Uzbek gas reserves.
Together with the country’s gold resources, this makes Uzbekistan a valuable contributor to India’s search for diversified energy and mineral supplies.
Defence and Security
Defence cooperation has grown rapidly and is now a signature strand of the relationship. Its centrepiece is the DUSTLIK (meaning ‘friendship’) joint military exercise — an annual, rotational drill focused on counter-terrorism and special operations.
This builds on earlier steps such as a joint working group on terrorism and MoUs on defence cooperation and cyber security. The shared concern is extremism radiating from the Fergana Valley and the wider region, which gives the security partnership genuine depth and continuity.
Cultural Cooperation
Culture is a natural strength, drawing on the deep Babur and Amir Khusrau heritage. The ICCR runs an active cultural centre in Tashkent, and Indian cinema, music and language enjoy a long following — Uzbek Radio has broadcast in Hindi for decades.
During the 2015 Prime Ministerial visit, India gifted a compilation of the works of Amir Khusrau, underscoring the shared literary inheritance. This civilisational warmth gives the modern partnership an emotional resonance that few of India’s other regional ties can match.
Recent Developments
- The ‘New Uzbekistan’ opening: the reformist leadership under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev — who succeeded the long-ruling Islam Karimov after 2016 — has liberalised the economy, eased regional tensions and actively courted Indian trade and investment, injecting new energy into the partnership.
- Institutionalised defence ties: the DUSTLIK exercise, launched in 2019, has become a firmly established annual event, reflecting a maturing security partnership against shared terror threats.
- A long-term uranium contract: India and Uzbekistan concluded a multi-year contract for the supply of natural-uranium ore concentrates, cementing Uzbekistan as a second Central Asian source of nuclear fuel after Kazakhstan.
- Credit and connectivity: India extended a line of credit to support development projects, and both sides continue to build trade and transit links through the Ashgabat Agreement and the India–Central Asia dialogue framework.
Issues and Challenges
- The connectivity handicap: doubly landlocked, Uzbekistan is hard to reach — a hostile Pakistan and an unstable Afghanistan block direct overland routes, keeping logistics costly and trade below potential.
- Modest trade volumes: despite breadth of engagement, absolute trade remains small relative to the two economies and is dwarfed by China’s footprint.
- Great-power competition: China’s economic weight and Russia’s traditional influence limit the space available to India.
- Regional instability: extremism linked to the Fergana Valley and spillover from Afghanistan pose persistent security risks.
The Way Forward
- Ride the reform wave: seize the openings created by ‘New Uzbekistan’ to expand Indian investment in textiles, pharmaceuticals, IT and infrastructure.
- Fix connectivity: operationalise Chabahar, the INSTC and the Ashgabat Agreement to cut the cost of reaching a doubly landlocked partner.
- Deepen energy and defence: scale uranium and gas cooperation and institutionalise the DUSTLIK-led security partnership into wider training and counter-terror coordination.
- Leverage the civilisational bond: use the Babur and Amir Khusrau heritage, ICCR programmes and education links to build a durable people-to-people foundation.
- Diversify trade: move beyond a narrow basket toward services, agri-processing, mining and manufacturing joint ventures.
Conclusion
India–Uzbekistan relations blend the richest history with some of the most promising modern potential in Central Asia. Rooted in the shared legacy of Babur and Amir Khusrau and the Silk Route cities, the partnership has matured into a broad, balanced engagement spanning uranium and textiles, DUSTLIK drills and cyber-security, cultural centres and credit lines.
The reformist opening of ‘New Uzbekistan’ has made Tashkent an especially willing partner, and its central location makes it a natural hub for India’s wider regional ambitions. As with the rest of Central Asia, the binding constraint is connectivity; overcome that, and Uzbekistan — the civilisational heart of the region — can become one of the strongest pillars of India’s Central Asia policy.