Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second year in office is set to be even more hectic than his first year in terms of his foreign travels. After his maiden trip to Bangladesh next week (6-7 July), he is due to visit Russia on 7 July for attending multilateral events. Soon after that, he is likely to visit all five Central Asian countries -- Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second year in office is set to be even more hectic than his first year in terms of his foreign travels. After his maiden trip to Bangladesh next week (6-7 July), he is due to visit Russia on 7 July for attending multilateral events. Soon after that, he is likely to visit all five Central Asian countries -- Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

In Russia, PM Modi will be attending the 7th BRICS summit which is scheduled to take place in Ufa on 8-9 July. The BRICS summit will be followed by the 15th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit at the same venue on 9-10 July. Incidentally, PM Modi will be traveling to Russia again towards the end of the year on purely a bilateral visit to attend the annual India-Russia annual summit.

India is not yet a full member of SCO and has only Observer status in this Eurasian political, economic and military organisation founded in 2001 founded by China and the five Central Asian countries. There is a strong possibility that India would be given full membership of the SCO ahead of the Ufa summit.

If that happens, Modi willl become the first Indian Prime Minister to attend the SCO.

Though SCO is not a military bloc, it is increasingly getting pro-active in international security and counter terrorism architecture, particularly in Central Asia. This makes SCO all the more important for India.

PM Modi’s proposed visit to Central Asian countries is significant as it would signal India’s intent to get proactive in a region where China has made deep forays for years. Ever since the former Soviet Union states in Central Asia became independent countries in the wake of collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, no Indian prime minister has visited all five Central Asian countries in one go.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s landmark foreign policy initiative Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) was unveiled during his tour of the five Central Asian states in September 2013.

China has poured over 33 billion dollars in the five Central Asian states in the last decade and has virtually nudged out Russia in terms of influence from the latter's own backyard.

Consider the Chinese investments in Central Asia in past decade (2005-2015): Tajikistan ($1.24 billion), Turkmenistan ($3.88 billion), Uzbekistan ($1.51 billion), Kazakhstan ($23.55 billion) and Kyrgyzstan $3.61 billion). More details in this context are available here.

Now consider some of the breathtaking projects that China has undertaken in Central Asia. In the above-mentioned list of Chinese investments in Central Asia, Kazakhstan tops the list. Kazakhstan, world’s ninth largest country, is the largest Central Asian nation. It is the most economically advanced country in Central Asia and is rich in mineral resources, including oil and uranium. Recently China had handed over a loan of ten billion dollars to cash-strapped Kazakhstan and is supporting construction projects and investment from Ashgabat to Bishkek. Inevitably, it is not without quid pro quo and Beijing will be extracting its pound of flesh from Astana.

Besides, China is constructing multi-million dollar infrastructure projects in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and helping to finance construction of railway from Uzbekistan through Kyrgyzstan to China.

It is against this backdrop that PM Modi’s proposed visit to all five Central Asian nations assumes significance. Previous governments too realized the strategic importance of Central Asia and the need to counter China’s rapidly enlarging footprint in the region.

PM Modi’s Central Asia itinerary should be firmed up in the next couple of weeks. Though the Prime Minister’s Russia visit will be a high profile one because of BRICS and SCO summits, in many ways the Central Asian leg of his tour will be equally important, if not more. The world will be watching Modi’s Central Asia trip: the West with overt glee; Russia with some covert relief (as India finally counters Russia’s ‘frenemy’ China); and China with certain degree of trepidation.