Security Concerns in Central Asia: Implications for India

Central Asia sits at the crossroads of some of the world’s most volatile security challenges. The five republics – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – share a long, porous frontier with Afghanistan, a country that has remained a source of instability for decades. For India, this matters far more than geography alone suggests. The threats that brew in this region – religious extremism, terrorism, and a vast narcotics trade – do not stay contained within Central Asian borders. They ripple outward, touching the national security interests of India, Russia, and China alike. Understanding these security concerns helps explain why a region without a shared border with India has become a serious focus of New Delhi’s foreign policy.

Why Central Asia matters to India’s security 🔗

India treats Central Asia as part of its extended neighbourhood. Although the two regions do not share a direct land border, the security developments in the republics directly affect the wider area in which India operates. The Indian Council of World Affairs notes that India maintains strategic partnerships with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and both sides face common challenges like terrorism and drug trafficking. This shared vulnerability is the foundation of the security relationship.

The core reason is proximity to Afghanistan. The republics act as a buffer zone, and whatever instability emanates from Afghanistan tends to spill northward into Central Asia before spreading further. For India, a region that produces extremist ideologies, foreign fighters, and trafficked drugs poses a direct threat to its own internal stability, particularly when these elements connect with networks operating across the Af-Pak region.

Religious extremism and terrorism 🔗

The most prominent security concern in Central Asia is the rise of religious extremism and terrorism. The region has produced and hosted several militant organisations over the past three decades, and the threat has evolved considerably over time.

Home-grown militant groups 🔗

The best-known regional militant outfit is the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). According to the US National Counterterrorism Center, the IMU sought to overthrow the Uzbek government and establish a radical Islamist caliphate across “Turkestan” – the territory stretching from the Caspian Sea to Xinjiang in western China. After being pushed out of Central Asia following the Tajik civil war of the 1990s, its fighters relocated to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where they became active in the Taliban-led insurgency in northern Afghanistan.

Other groups have splintered or emerged over the years. The Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) broke away from the IMU and operated alongside the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani Network. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is an ethnic Uighur separatist organisation focused on China’s Xinjiang province, which directly explains Beijing’s deep anxiety about the region. As the Association for Asian Studies explains, the ETIM is motivated by the goal of establishing an Islamic state in Xinjiang and has been linked to plots across the Central Asian republics.

The ISIS-K dimension and foreign fighters 🔗

The terrorism picture shifted significantly after the rise of the Islamic State. Thousands of radicals from the five Central Asian states travelled to Syria and Iraq as foreign terrorist fighters, and hundreds went to Afghanistan. The UN Counter-Terrorism Committee has warned that while the actual number of attacks within Central Asia has been relatively limited, the terrorist threat should not be underestimated, partly because of the region’s proximity to areas of intense terrorist activity.

The danger of this exported extremism became tragically clear with recent ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) attacks. The Atlantic Council reports that Central Asian nationals, particularly Tajiks, carried out many recent ISIS-K plots, and that the group conducted three mass-casualty attacks in Iran, Turkey, and Russia in early 2024. The deadly assault on a concert hall near Moscow in March 2024, for which several Tajik nationals were charged, underlined how extremism nurtured in this region can strike a major power like Russia. ISIS-K openly seeks to expand across what it calls “Khorasan” – Central and South Asia – which places India squarely within its declared ambitions.

Drug trafficking and narcoterrorism 🔗

The second major security concern is the enormous flow of narcotics out of Afghanistan, which is deeply intertwined with terrorism. This connection is often called narcoterrorism – where the proceeds of the drug trade fund extremist and terrorist activity.

The Northern Route 🔗

Afghanistan has long dominated global opium production. The Observer Research Foundation notes that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimated Afghanistan supplied around 80 percent of the world’s opium and heroin, trafficked along three main routes into Asia and Europe. The route that runs through Central Asia is known as the Northern Route.

This route exploits the long, porous border between Afghanistan and the Central Asian republics. According to ORF analysis, drugs move from Afghanistan into Tajikistan, then onward through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, ultimately reaching Russia and Eastern Europe. Tajikistan, sharing the longest and most rugged border with Afghanistan, sits on the front line. Its border forces have historically lacked the resources to intercept the bulk of narcotics being smuggled across.

How drugs fund terror 🔗

The trafficking is not merely a law-and-order problem; it is a security threat because of where the money goes. The drug trade provides a significant funding source for terrorist organisations and anti-state actors operating in the region. The ORF further observes that much of the drug trade in the Afghanistan-Pakistan and Central Asia regions goes unnoticed, providing a steady revenue stream for regional terrorist organisations. Terrorist groups depend on these networks for money, which is why disrupting the financial channels is considered as important as fighting the militants themselves.

For India, this is a direct concern. India faces a drug threat from both Afghanistan in the north-west and Myanmar in the east, and the smuggling networks that move narcotics also move weapons and finance for hostile groups. Tackling the funding “lifeline” of terror has become a recurring theme in India’s regional diplomacy.

Instability in Afghanistan as the common thread 🔗

Almost every security concern in Central Asia traces back to instability in Afghanistan. The Taliban takeover in 2021 created fresh uncertainty about whether Afghan soil would once again be used as a base for groups targeting neighbouring states. A security vacuum in Afghanistan raises the risk of militant resurgence, increased drug cultivation, and the movement of fighters across borders.

This is precisely why India and the Central Asian states consistently emphasise the importance of a stable Afghanistan. At their security meetings, both sides have agreed to work towards addressing security challenges emanating from Afghanistan while supporting connectivity and economic development as a basis for long-term stability. The shared understanding is simple: without a stable Afghanistan, the threats of extremism and trafficking cannot be effectively contained.

India’s response and counter-terrorism cooperation 🔗

India has responded to these concerns through a combination of bilateral partnerships and multilateral mechanisms, working both with the Central Asian states directly and alongside global powers.

The India-Central Asia dialogue 🔗

The relationship was significantly institutionalised through the first India-Central Asia Summit in January 2022, which established a dedicated dialogue between the security councils of the participating countries. As the ICWA records, the leaders condemned terrorism in all its forms – including the use of terrorist proxies for cross-border terrorism, terror financing, and religious extremism – and committed to a regular dialogue mechanism.

This has translated into concrete meetings. A dedicated National Security Advisers’ dialogue now brings together India and the Central Asian republics. At the third such meeting held in Bishkek in October 2025, top security officials discussed ways to enhance cooperation in countering terrorism, radicalisation, extremism, and narcotics trafficking, while also emphasising the significance of stability in Afghanistan. These engagements have included intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism dialogues, and joint training initiatives.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and RATS 🔗

A key multilateral platform is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), of which India, the Central Asian states, Russia, China, and Pakistan are members. The SCO operates a dedicated Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) aimed at coordinating action against terrorism, separatism, and extremism. During its SCO presidency, India pushed for greater cooperation among member countries against drug trafficking, recognising that SCO members provide transit for a large share of the world’s illicit opium trade.

The SCO is significant because it brings India, Russia, and China to the same table on a shared concern, even where these powers have rivalries elsewhere. However, analysts have also pointed to the limitations of the bloc, noting that rising drug addiction and trade within the SCO region suggest the mechanism has not been fully effective.

Balancing major-power influence 🔗

India’s outreach also reflects a strategic dimension. As StratNews Global observes, India positions itself as a reliable, development-oriented partner in a region navigating a security vacuum in Afghanistan, growing Chinese economic influence, and increasing Russian dependency. Counter-terrorism cooperation thus serves both a security purpose and a wider geopolitical one – keeping India relevant in a region where other powers are competing for influence.

The road ahead 🔗

The security concerns in Central Asia are unlikely to disappear soon. Religious extremism continues to find recruits, the narcotics trade remains lucrative and resilient, and Afghanistan’s future stability is far from guaranteed. For India, the challenge is to deepen practical cooperation – intelligence sharing, capacity building, border security collaboration, and disrupting terror financing – while managing a region crowded with competing powers. The growing institutionalisation of the India-Central Asia security dialogue suggests New Delhi sees this engagement not as optional, but as central to protecting its own national security.

What do you think? Should India prioritise multilateral platforms like the SCO to address Central Asian security threats, or focus more on direct bilateral partnerships with individual republics? And how far can counter-terrorism cooperation succeed if the underlying instability in Afghanistan remains unresolved?

References

1. https://www.icwa.in/show_content.php?lang=1&level=1&ls_id=11599&lid=7067
2. https://www.dni.gov/nctc/groups/central_eurasia.html
3. https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/terrorism-in-central-asia-dynamics-dimensions-and-sources/
4. https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/ctc/node/41326
5. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/europe-isis-k-tajikistan/
6. https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/the-growing-narcotrafficking-in-central-asia
7. https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/indias-sco-presidency
8. https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-narcoterrorism-challenge-to-india-s-national-security
9. https://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a1686752.html
10. https://stratnewsglobal.com/world-news/indias-central-asia-outreach-amid-regional-security-tensions/