PM Modi's visit will give ‘fresh direction’ to India–Kyrgyzstan strategic ties, Indian envoy Birender Singh Yadav says

Bishkek: India’s ambassador to Kyrgyzstan has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bishkek will give “fresh direction” to ties already raised to a strategic partnership, with the emphasis falling on defence cooperation, trade and physical connectivity.

Ambassador Birender Singh Yadav, speaking to WION's Sidhant Sibal, pointed out that Modi’s third trip to the Kyrgyz Republic is “primarily to attend” the 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads-of-state summit. On the sidelines, he will hold bilateral talks with President Sadyr Japarov. The two leaders, Yadav said, are expected to “review the full range of ties and set guidance for the next phase of engagement”.

The relationship was elevated to a strategic partnership during Modi’s 2019 visit. “Since then,” Yadav said, “bilateral trade turnover has almost doubled over five to six years.” Defence and security cooperation and people-to-people contacts had also “expanded markedly”.

On security, a 2019 memorandum of understanding created a joint working group on defence cooperation. “The group meets annually and has produced an agreed plan of action,” the ambassador said. Joint exercises and training programmes had increased, including “specialised counter-terrorism courses tailored to Kyrgyz requirements”.

India also gifted two Bheeshma Arogya Maitri health cubes, portable medical units for disaster relief, during Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit in April 2026. These steps, Yadav noted, sit within the SCO’s priorities of “countering terrorism, extremism and separatism, while also deepening the bilateral security partnership”.

Trade remains modest in absolute terms but is growing. Yadav said turnover “has nearly doubled and is expected to rise further”. He welcomed the start of negotiations on a free-trade agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Union as “a positive step”.

Connectivity is the constraint. “There is indeed a challenge regarding direct physical connectivity,” Yadav said. “Both countries are promoting and availing the use of the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) to provide a streamlined transport corridor for the flow of goods and services between the two nations and to the broader Central Asian region. We are confident that the optimum utilisation of the INSTC transport corridor will significantly help in enhancing our bilateral trade ties.”

Indian PM left India on 29 August for a state visit to Uzbekistan before travelling to Bishkek for the SCO summit on 31 August–1 September, which marks the organisation’s 25th anniversary.