India has offered its assistance to Kyrgyzstan in a wide range of areas to strengthen its defence and security capabilities. The Defence Minister A.K. Antony made this offer at the extensive talks he held with his Kyrgyz counterpart Major General Abibilla Kudayberdiev in Bishkek on July 4. The talks took place between the delegations of the two countries immediately after the arrival of Antony in the Kyrgyz capital.

As a first step, India will be sending a team to train Kyrgyz Armed Forces in UN Peacekeeping Operations and impart English language skills. During the talks, Antony said though the present level of defence engagements are rather limited, there is potential to mutually enhance the scope and scale of activities in a gradual manner in areas of mutual interest particularly in the field of military training, defence research and development and production of defence armaments.

Antony was leading a high level defence delegation including the DRDO Chief Dr V.K. Saraswat, Special Secretary R.K. Mathur, Secretary Defence Finance Vijay Lakshmi Gupta and Chief Controller of Research and Development Dr William Selvamurthy. The Indian Ambassador to Bishkek, P. Stobdan also joined the deliberations.

Antony said India has a wide network of research establishments not only in armaments but also in physiology, medicine, animal husbandry, nutrition etc under defence establishments. He offered New Delhi’s assistance to Bishkek for undertaking joint research and production in non-military sectors also.

Appreciating the support of the Kyrgyz authorities in international efforts against terrorism and drug trafficking in Kyrgyzstan, he said the joint working groups on counter- terrorism should meet regularly to share information on the issue.