India-Kyrgyzstan reviews bilateral cooperation in defence, capacity building

The Indian side was led by Vikas Swarup, Secretary (West). The Kyrgyz side was led by Nuran Niyazaliev, First Deputy Foreign Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, read an official release of the Ministry of External Affairs.

During the consultations, both sides reviewed the bilateral cooperation in diverse areas including political, economic, commercial, defence, development partnership, capacity building, consular matters and cultural cooperation.

Special emphasis was laid on the timely implementation of decisions taken and MoUs/agreements signed during the visit of PM Modi to the Kyrgyz Republic in June 2019.

The two sides also exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest and agreed to enhance cooperation in the UN and multilateral arena, read the release.

The talks were held in a friendly and cordial atmosphere. Both sides agreed to hold the next consultations at a mutually convenient date.

Earlier, PM Modi had embarked on a two-day visit to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in 2019.

On June 14, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral meetings with the President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbey Jeenbekov. They jointly inaugurated the India-Kyrgyz Business forum and asked their business communities to explore the untapped potential for deepening bilateral relations between the two countries.

15 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) were signed between India and Kyrgyzstan in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of Kyrgyzstan, Sooronbey Jeenbekov. They agreed to celebrate 2021 as the year of cultural and friendship between the Kyrgyz Republic and India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also granted a 200-million-dollar line of Credit (LoC) to Kyrgyzstan to ensure India's increasing participation in business, development and economy of Kyrgyzstan. (ANI)