![Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the Akorda President's Palace, Astana, Kazakhstan, July 8, 2015 (Photo from the Indian Prime Minister's office).](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/l_india_kazakhstan_07162015_1.jpg?w=519&h=259&crop=1)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s whirlwind tour this month of the five Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkeminstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, with a stop in the middle in Russia, was a move to breathe life into the “Connect Central Asia” strategy launched under Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh, in 2012. Modi’s renewed seriousness about an Indian foreign policy that looks north is underscored by India’s investment in the Iranian port of Chahbahar. The port forms the southern end of the International North-South Corridor (INSTC), a multination rail, road and shipping network connecting India with Russia via Central Asia. But this […]