On October 21, 2022, the III International Conference on Central Asia on the topic “International Transport Corridor North-South and Chabahar: An Alternative to BRI” was held at the AIU within the framework of which the problems and opportunities related to INSTC and the port of Chabahar were discussed.

The organizers of this event are the Silk Road Research Center, AIU, the “Burana” Research Institute (Kyrgyzstan), the Central Asian Research Center, Suleyman Demirel University (Kazakhstan), the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Food, the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Natural Sciences (Hungary).

         Well-known scientists from Russia, Iran, Great Britain, India, Japan, Germany, Poland and other countries of Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia presented reports highlighting the importance and advantages of the North-South Transport Corridor and the Chabahar port for the landlocked countries of Central Asia, the CIS and Russia. The scientific meeting was held in a hybrid online-offline format. 

“The objectives of the conference are to discuss the role, study the problems and opportunities associated with the North-South and Chabahar” said the organizer of the event Dr. Kashif Hasan Khan, Director of the Silk Road Research Center.

“Today, foreign scientists gathered to discuss in the academic sphere such topics as the establishment of ties between India and Central Asia, relations between India and Iran and the port of Chabahar, as well as bilateral and multilateral cooperation at various levels, etc.” said the chairman of the conference Rustam Umarov, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of the AIU. 

For information:

INSTC is imagined as a 7,200-km multimodal exchange passage, which runs all the way from India to Russia and Europe, connecting the Indian Sea and the Persian Inlet to the Caspian Ocean.

BRI - (Belt and Road Initiative) is initiated by China that seeks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks. 

The subthemes of the Conference were:

• Role of Central Asia and INSTC
• Indo-Kyrgyz Relations
• Indo-Europe Relations and the role of INSTC and Chabahar
• Emerging connectivity between India and Central Asia
• India - Iran relations and Chabahar port
• Bilateral and multilateral interactions on multiple levels.

During the scientific meeting, Professor Ali Omidi, from the Department of Political Sciences of the Iranian Isfahan University, thanked the organizers and the “Ala-Too” International University for providing an excellent opportunity to discuss an important topic.

1. To access the video, follow the link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gbHZ1TqkEStwTJQjYIS1yO9mJTByS4g5?usp=sharing; 
2. To access to the article of the news portal “Moskovsky Komsomolets Kirgiziya", follow the link: https://www.mk.kg/economics/2022/10/22/mtk-severyug-i-iranskiy-port-chabakhar-mogut-ukrepit-ekonomicheskoe-sotrudnichestvo-evrazii.html.  

Photo report