Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday appreciated the Central Asian nations for condemning the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which left 26 people, mostly non-Muslims tourists, dead.

Jaishankar chaired the 4th India-Central Asia Dialogue in Delhi earlier in the day.

Jaishankar wrote on X: "Thank my Central Asian colleagues DPM & FM Murat Nurtleu, Deputy Chairman & FM Rashid Meredov, FM Zheenbek Kulubaev, FM Sirojiddin Muhriddin and @FM_Saidov for their assessments and views."

He said: "Expressed India’s appreciation on Central Asian partners condemning the heinous terrorist attack in Pahalgam."

Wide-ranging discussion held

Jaishankar said he held wide-ranging discussions on themes of connectivity, regional security and terrorism, technology cooperation, development partnership and people-to-people exchanges with the central asian partners.

"Confident that our deliberations today would lead to forging an even closer and deeper India-Central Asia partnership," he wrote on X.

Jaishankar hosted the Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan for the 4th meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue in New Delhi on June 6.

The 3rd meeting of the Dialogue was hosted by India in New Delhi in December 2021.

India and Central Asia, in each other’s ‘Extended Neighbourhood’, enjoy close and cordial contemporary diplomatic relations underpinned by millennia old cultural and people-to-people exchanges, read a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.

The first India-Central Summit held virtually in January 2022 and the mechanism of India-Central Asia Dialogue, at the level of Foreign Ministers, have taken this relationship substantially forward.

The Foreign Ministers will also participate in the India-Central Asia Business Council meeting being held on 5 June 2025 by MEA in collaboration with FICCI.

The India-Central Asia Dialogue is a manifestation of mutual interest on the part of India and the Central Asian countries to forge even closer, wider and stronger partnership in a spirit of friendship, trust and mutual understanding.