PM Modi Central Asia Visit: Student Interaction In Tashkent To Bilateral With Putin At SCO Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with Indologists and students at the Mahatma Gandhi Center in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, encouraging research on Indian subjects and translations into the Uzbek language. During the visit, both nations established a Hindi scholarship in memory of late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and a Sanskrit chair at Tashkent University. Over 2,700 Uzbek students have benefited from India's ITEC economic and technical cooperation program. Following his Uzbekistan visit, Prime Minister Modi arrived in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to attend the 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. On the sidelines of the SCO summit, Prime Minister Modi is set to hold bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Key agenda items for the bilateral meeting include energy cooperation, defense ties, delayed defense deliveries, addressing trade imbalance, and Russian crude oil imports. At the SCO summit, India seeks to push for counter-terrorism consensus, expand connectivity via Chabahar port and INSTC, and balance strategic autonomy.