PIB TrackerIndia and Uzbekistan aim to double trade in three years
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal invited businesses to co-invest and co-manufacture at the India-Uzbekistan Business Forum, flagging mining, textiles and a bilateral investment treaty.
What happened
- Piyush Goyal invited Indian and Uzbek businesses to co-invest, co-manufacture and co-innovate.
- He called for doubling bilateral trade over the next three years.
- He was addressing the India-Uzbekistan Business Forum in New Delhi.
- He flagged opportunities in mining and textiles and said a Bilateral Investment Treaty would help.
- Cooperation was sought in healthcare, agriculture, digital technologies and advanced manufacturing.
For Prelims
- Uzbekistan: the most populous Central Asian state; double landlocked — one of only two such countries in the world.
- The goal: doubling bilateral trade over three years, with a Bilateral Investment Treaty to support it.
- Priority sectors: mining, textiles, healthcare, agriculture, digital technologies and advanced manufacturing.
- Why Central Asia: critical minerals — uranium, copper, rare earths — and strategic depth in India's extended neighbourhood.
- Connectivity constraint: no direct land route; hence Chabahar port and the International North-South Transport Corridor.
- Frameworks: the India-Central Asia Summit and Dialogue mechanisms; Uzbekistan is also an SCO member.
For UPSC: A Central Asia item. Use it for India's Connect Central Asia policy, critical-mineral supply-chain diversification, the connectivity constraint solved via Chabahar and the INSTC, and bilateral investment treaties as an instrument.
What it is NOT: This is a business forum with an aspirational trade target — not a signed free-trade agreement or a concluded investment treaty.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS2.18 · GS2.19 · Linkage L1
Anchor
A partnership rich in history and short on trade — India and Uzbekistan try to change the ratio.
Substantiation (data)
A call to double bilateral trade in three years, with mining and textiles flagged and a bilateral investment treaty in prospect.
Exemplification
Co-investment and co-manufacturing rather than simple trade — the model India now prefers with resource-rich partners.
Problematisation
Geography is the binding constraint: a double-landlocked partner with no direct land route to India keeps logistics costs high.
Way-forward
Operationalise Chabahar and the INSTC, conclude the investment treaty, and target critical minerals with local value addition.
Position
India's Central Asia policy will be judged by connectivity delivered, not summits held.
Deploys into: Groupings + foreign policy (GS2.18, GS2.19) · Connect Central Asia, critical minerals, and Chabahar and the INSTC as connectivity answers.
Ministry of Commerce & Industry · 2026-08-03 · PRID 2293710 · PIB source ↗