Almaty, Apr 10: An MoU with Turkmenistan on oil and natural gas and Kazakhstan's readiness to turn proactive on projects in the key sector were the highlights of Vice President Hamid Ansari's week-long visit to the two Central Asian countries which concluded on Thursday.

The first visit of Ansari, after becoming Vice President last year, saw India's ties gaining a new momentum with the hydrocarbon-rich Central Asian countries, whose importance has grown in recent years as the search for new sources of energy grew worldwide and New Delhi was no exception in finding ways and means to ensure its energy security.

Ansari left here for home today after his talks with Kazakh leaders which saw Astana coming out strongly in support of representation of India in an expanded UN Security Council.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the Vice President agreed that the two sides have to do a "lot of catching up" in the field of trade and economic cooperation, including in the area of hydrocarbons.

Kazakhstan is the second largest ex-Soviet state after Russia and has huge reserves of oil and natural gas as also of several minerals including uranium.

With the country going in for economic liberalisation, it was receiving sizable investments from abroad. China has commissioned a pipeline from Kazakhstan's oil and gas fields.

Hydrocarbon-rich Central Asia is witnessing a virtual race between US, Russia and China to gain control over the energy resources in the region.

Nazarbeyev, in his talks with Ansari, said that India along with China were the drivers of growth in Asia. He said his country is expected to double the oil exports in a decade's time, indicating thereby his counttry's readiness to do business with India in the vital field.

The two countries decided to go for cooperation on a projet-specific mode in areas of hydrocarbon, pharmaceuticals, information technology and education.

Ansari's visit to Kazakhstan saw the Vice President being conferred an honorary doctorate by the Al Farabi University here. He also addreessed the Academy of Public Administration at Astana.

Seeking to broaden and deepen the ties with the region, the Vice President visualised the relations with Central Asia flourishing in the years ahead to take a shape like that with countries in the Gulf and ASEAN. "We should not look at yesterday and today, but tomorrow and the day after tomorrow", Ansari, a former diplomat, said.

He emphasised that Central Asia was the "extended neighbourhood" of India with which it has age-old cultural and civilisational ties. India's contacts with the region go back to the days of the Great Silk Route which passed from China to the Western world through the Central Asian region.

His talks with Kazakh and Turkmen leaders was underlined by mutual commonality between the two sides on a variety of issues including terrorism and drug trafficking. The parleys at Astana saw both sides referring to the "troublespots in the neighbourhood".

The MoU with Turkmenistan would help facilitate contacts between Indian and Turkmen companies in the field of oil and natural gas. For years, a pipeline between Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) is being proposed to carry gas from the Dauletabad fields of Turkmenistan to energy-hungry India.

There have been reports that the pipeline will be feasible only if India is a part of it.

Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahmed, who was part of the high level delegation accompanying the Vice President described the visit as "very productive and very encouraging".