India-Central Asia Summit to be held every 2 years

In a virtual meet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with other Central-Asian leaders welcomed the holding of the India-Central Asia Summit on Thursday and agreed to hold it every two years, with the next meeting to be held in 2024. Apart from the India - Central Asia Dialogue mechanism at the Foreign Ministers level, they agreed that the Ministers of Trade and Culture would meet at regular intervals to take forward cooperation in these areas, said MEA in a statement.

They also agreed to continue regular meetings of Secretaries of the Security Council to discuss security developments in the region. The Central Asian Leaders welcomed the offer of India to establish an "India-Central Asia Centre" in New Delhi which could act as the Secretariat for the India - Central Asia Summit.

The leaders also valued the cooperation between the Parliaments of India and the Central Asian countries as an important forum of interaction between the legislatures of these countries and noted the relevance of the proposal to create an 'India-Central Asia Parliamentary Forum', MEA said in its official statement.