India, Kyrgyzstan should work together to secure youth against terrorism, radicalism: PM Narendra Modi

New Delhi: Maintaining that India and Kyrgyzstan share a common pursuit of making Central Asia a region of sustainable peace, stability and prosperity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called on President Almazbek Atambaev to work together to safeguard people against the common challenges of terrorism, extremism, and radicalism.

"President Atambaev and I held extensive discussions on the full range of our bilateral engagement. We focused on our common priority of diversifying and deepening bilateral engagement. We also discussed how we could work together to secure our youth and society against the common challenges of terrorism, extremism, and radicalism," he said.

Prime Minister Modi said the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will also give a valuable framework the both countries to work together on these issues.

President Atambaev and Prime Minister Modi also reviewed their cooperative engagement in the defence field.

"The Kyrgyz-India Mountain Bio-Medical Research Center is an excellent example of successful collaboration. It has proved to be a rewarding research initiative, which we need to build on. We have commenced work on a Kyrgyz-India Joint Military Training Center in Kyrgyz Republic. Our joint military exercises on counter-terrorism are now an annual feature. The next edition has been planned for first quarter of next year in Kyrgyz Republic," Prime Minister Modi said.

In an effort to connect India and Kirgizstan`s economies, both the countries pledged to strengthen bilateral trade and economic linkages, and facilitate greater people-to-people exchanges.

"We will encourage industry and business on both sides to play a leading role in exploiting opportunities in healthcare, tourism, information technology, agriculture, mining and energy. We have decided to build on our development cooperation including in capacity building and training. People have been at the center of such initiatives. We are taking steps to expand this project to other regions of the Kyrgyz Republic," Prime Minister Modi said.

Both the countries also gave special emphasis to youth exchanges in technical and economic cooperation programme.

"The understandings concluded today will support our thrust in these directions. In a first with the Central Asian region, we had initiated tele-medicine links with Kyrgyz Republic last year. We are taking steps to expand this project to other regions of the Kyrgyz Republic," Prime Minister Modi said.

India and the Kyrgyz Republic will be marking the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries in March 2017 and as we approach this milestone, Prime Minister Modi said, President Atambaev`s visit to India will drive the process and our efforts of deepening our partnership.

"It will also help consolidate the recent gains in our engagement and reinforce our ties in the months and years ahead. I wish President Atambaev a memorable and productive visit in India," he said.