PM Narendra Modi leaves for eight-day tour to Central Asian countries

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday left on an eight-day tour to five Central Asian countries and to Ufa in Russia to attend the BRICS and SCO summits.

Modi's first stop is Uzbekistan.

He will be visiting Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan from July 6-8 after which he will attend the BRICS and SCO summits from July 8-10. He will visit the three countries of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan from July 10-13.

Boosting trade, energy, connectivity and counter-terrorism, besides people-to-people links will be high on the agenda in all five countries.

Writing about the first leg of his visit on his Facebook page , Modi said his first stop will be Uzbekistan, where he will hold talks with President Islam Karimov and both sides would ink key agreements to strengthen cooperation.

Modi said he would be interacting with Indologists, students learning Hindi and members of the Indian community. There are over 3,000 Indians in Tashkent.

"It was in Tashkent that we lost one of our most popular and respected leaders, Lal Bahadur Shastri ji, who ignited our nation with the clarion call of 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan'. I will be paying my tributes to this proud son of India during the visit," Modi said.