New Delhi, Oct. 6 :    New Delhi, Oct. 6:  India's neglect of the Central Asian republics - Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmeinstan - is now proving expensive, the Samata Party believes. According to the party, these strategically-located former Soviet Republics are important to New Delhi to fight Islamic fundamentalism exported via Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ties with these countries would have helped India fight Islamic militants, the party maintains. Delhi could have also benefited from their huge gas and oil deposits. If India does not take interest in these countries, the US and Pakistan will, a note prepared at the instance of former defence minister George Fernandes had warned in 1999. Uzbekistan on Thursday permitted the US to launch military operations from its territory in return for money and a promise that it would help Uzbeks fight Taliban-backed fundamentalists of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which wants to over- throw the country's secular government. Barring Tajikistan, all the Central Asian republics are secular and have populations less than that of New Delhi. Besides, they boast a cent per cent literacy rate and a modern outlook and would, therefore, have been easier to do business with, said the note, prepared by the Samata Party's international department chairman Shambu Shrivastwa at the request of then defence minister George Fernandes. The note underlined the strategic importance of these Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries for India. Prepared for the consideration of the foreign ministry, it said these countries were looking to New Delhi for collaboration. Shrivastwa in his document said India should cultivate the Central Asian countries since they shared their international borders with China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Uzbek President Islam Karimov, a former communist, was the first to visit India showing the way to the rest of the region to follow suit, but New Delhi refused to show interest even after all the Central Asian heads of state had paid a visit. The note suggested setting up an Indo-Central Asia Forum consisting of some 40 members, 15 from India and five each from these countries. Apart from security experts, the forum should have industrialists (for developing business ties) and politicians of ruling and opposition parties, the note said. These newly-independent states did not have proper banking, financial and legal systems and India could help them set up these institutions, Shrivastwa suggested, adding that trade with Central Asia, Iran, Turkey and Europe would have been easier if India had direct access to these countries. India's old trade route to Central Asia goes through the historic Khyber Pass. Relations with these countries would have also helped India minimise laundering of drug money, a major source of funding for separatist militants in the Kashmir Valley and the Northeast. Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence play a significant role in facilitating the movement of drugs to Thailand, Myanmar, India, the CIS, Turkey, Europe and the US.