Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 29 August, the Academy of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Uzbekistan hosted a meeting of experts from the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies with an exchange delegation from the National Defense College of India.

The parties exchanged views on the state and prospects for the development of Uzbek-Indian relations, including military and military-technical cooperation.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Bobur Usmanov emphasized the constantly growing and deepening scientific cooperation between the profile structures of the two countries.

The leaders and experts of the Institute take part in the international conference "Raisina Dialogue" on geopolitics and geoeconomics, annually organized by the Indian Research Foundation "Observer Research Foundation".

Recently, the representative of the ISMI stated, a number of joint events dedicated to the issues of ensuring security in Central and South Asia have been held. This is a “round table” with the Indian International Affairs Council on the topic “Uzbek-Indian partnership in ensuring regional peace and stability: challenges and prospects”, a webinar with the Indian analytical center “Tillotoma Foundation” on the topic: “Central Asia: Vision of peace, partnership and Development”, as well as the Third Uzbek-Indian Forum of Think Tanks, etc.

Speaking about the current challenges and threats to security, B. Usmanov stressed that in order to counter them, Uzbekistan is making efforts of a political, diplomatic, economic and military nature, both at the regional and international levels.

The expert also dwelled on the military component of the measures taken and spoke about some aspects of military construction in Uzbekistan and military-technical cooperation with foreign states.

According to him, since 2016, based on the state program documents "Strategy of action in five priority areas of development of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2017-2021", "Development strategy of New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026", huge changes were carried out in the field of security and foreign policy, military construction.

A new open Defense Doctrine of the Republic of Uzbekistan was developed, a large-scale reform of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the State Security Service was carried out. A fundamentally new structure has been created - the National Guard of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

At the same time, B. Usmanov noted, building direct bilateral ties with foreign states occupies an important place in matters of military construction.

According to him, cooperation in the field of security and defense is developing dynamically between Uzbekistan and India. Both countries regularly maintain high-level contacts in the field of defense cooperation.

A joint working group has been established between our countries to promote the expansion of mutually beneficial activities, and relevant plans are signed annually. At the same time, the main attention is paid to military education, personnel training, joint exercises and military-technical cooperation.

India and Uzbekistan successfully held two joint anti-terrorism exercises in 2019 and 2021. In March of this year, exercises "Dustlik-III" were held in Uzbekistan.

The cooperation of the National Guard of Uzbekistan with the National Security Guard of India, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service is developing.

In general, the meeting participants summarized that the common interests and priorities of Uzbekistan and India in the field of security create a solid foundation for giving new momentum to the multifaceted interaction between the two states in the long term. It was emphasized that such approaches will contribute to strengthening security in Central and South Asia, creating favorable conditions for expanding interregional cooperation, ensuring sustainable development and prosperity of our countries and peoples.