Swaraj in Kyrgyzstan to hold talks with top leaders

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today arrived in Kyrgyzstan on a two-day visit to hold talks with the Central Asian country's top leaders to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral ties in areas like defence, science and technology and health.

Swaraj arrived at Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan after wrapping up her tour to Kazakhstan. She was received by Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldaev.

The external affairs minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations.

In Kyrgyzstan, she would interact with Foreign Minister Abdyldaev and call on the leadership of the Kyrgyz Republic.

India and Kyrgyzstan share multi-dimensional relations including political, parliamentary, defence, science and technology and health.

"India has had close relations with Kyrgyzstan, which was part of ancient Silk Route," Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, tweeted.

The bilateral visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgyzstan in July 2015 and of the then President of the Kyrgyz Republic to India in December 2016, as also interactions on the margins of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits, have consolidated the traditionally cordial and close ties between the two countries, providing impetus to further strengthening of bilateral ties, according to an official statement.

Swaraj has interacted with Abdyldaev on a number of occasions including on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York.

In the last segment of her three-nation Central Asian tour, she would arrive in the Uzbek capital Tashkent tomorrow.