News articles and essays on the Indian diplomacy at work around the world.
Unlike arrangements where UPI is accepted only at selected merchants or through individual acquiring networks, the Uzbekistan partnership connects UPI with the country’s national interoperable QR infrastructure, potentially giving Indian users access to a very broad merchant network across retail establishments, hotels, restaurants and service providers.
The bilateral meeting took place on the sidelines of the 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit, hosted by the Kyrgyz Republic. The summit also coincided with Kyrgyzstan’s Independence Day, adding a symbolic dimension to Modi’s visit to Bishkek.
The Bishkek meeting was the first face-to-face meeting between Modi and Putin in 2026. Their previous meeting had taken place in New Delhi during the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit in December 2025, when the two countries reaffirmed their Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership and laid out an expanded agenda covering trade, defence, energy, technology and connectivity.
The talks came at a particularly sensitive moment for the region, with continuing conflict and geopolitical tensions affecting energy markets, commercial shipping and international supply chains. Modi expressed concern over the escalation of tensions and reiterated India’s longstanding position that disputes should be addressed through dialogue and diplomacy rather than military confrontation.
Bilateral merchandise trade between India and Brazil reached $15.07 billion in 2025-26. Reaching the new 2030 target would therefore require the two countries to roughly double their current trade relationship over the next several years.
The initiative could eventually allow businesses, travellers and other users in BRICS economies to move money between participating countries more rapidly and at lower cost by linking national digital-payment infrastructure and sovereign digital currencies. The proposal remains under discussion, however, and no common BRICS CBDC network or settlement architecture has yet been approved.
The discussions are expected to focus on shipbuilding, green shipping, alternative marine fuels, port decarbonisation, seafarer training and ship recycling, reflecting the growing importance of maritime cooperation within the wider India–Norway relationship.
The Clinical Establishment Act Standards for Mortuary, prepared under the National Council for Clinical Establishments and the Directorate General of Health Services, mark an attempt to bring greater consistency to an area of healthcare and forensic infrastructure that has traditionally operated under differing state-level procedures, police manuals, hospital practices and medico-legal rules. The official Clinical Establishments portal now lists the mortuary standards among its prescribed minimum standards.
Modern Termez stands close to the Amu Darya in the Surkhandarya region of southern Uzbekistan, near the country’s border with Afghanistan. In antiquity, this region formed part of Bactria, a crossroads connecting the Indian subcontinent with Iran, Central Asia and the wider Silk Road.
The development is significant because it links India’s domestic real-time payment ecosystem with Uzbekistan’s emerging national QR infrastructure. It also places digital payments alongside trade, investment, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and other technology sectors in the expanding India-Uzbekistan relationship, which has now been elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
