Emomalii Rahmon, President of Tajikistan since 1994, has been a frequent traveller to India, and on Monday he accepted President Pratibha Patil’s invitation to visit New Delhi again.

In a bilateral visit that’s billed to emphasise the unrealised potential for cooperation in the energy sector, both sides on Monday emphasised the point that an annual figure of $25 million does not reflect the true potential of India-Tajikistan trade. Nonetheless, India’s assistance in capacity building — training cadets, professionals, augmenting pharma, IT and food processing industries, upgrading a hydro-electric plant and an air base — is seen as an enhancement of its role in energy security.

Tajikistan, a mountainous country situated on an enduring trade route of Asia, is estimated to have hydroelectric potential of the order of 40,000-80,000 MW. India has committed $17 million for the rehabilitation and modernisation of the Varzob-I plant. Indian companies are building a 120-km transmission line within Tajikistan right up to the Afghan border. The experience, it is believed, will be valuable in India’s long-term challenge of getting more of its energy requirements transported from the energy-valuable “stans” of Central Asia.

There is a sense that India just does not have the kind of wallet competitors for long-term energy commitments like China does. China has, for instance, annual bilateral trade with Tajikistan worth $400 million. So, could the goodwill that accrues from capacity building and from more specific strategic common interests (in Tajikistan’s case, the turbulence in Afghanistan and its need for a peaceful periphery) serve to keep countries on the same page? A bank of memories of Raj Kapoor-style Soviet diplomacy plus the astonishingly strong hold of Hindi cinema in these parts give India a cultural connect beyond the oft-referred-to historical ties.