PM Modi, Iranian President agree to quickly develop Chabahar port

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, August 19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi agreed to quicken developing the Chabahar Port as a symbol of bilateral cooperation, said Mohammad Jamshidi, Iranian President’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs, after telephonic talks between the two leaders late on Friday.

“PM Modi hailed long-term cooperation with Iran and said the implementation of the joint project of Chabahar Port and turning it into a connectivity hub would lead to the region’s development. He said India was ready to finalise the documents pertaining to the completion of the project,” said the official Iranian news agency IRNA.

“The two leaders reiterated their commitment to further strengthen bilateral cooperation, including to realise the full potential of Chabahar Port as a connectivity hub,” said a brief MEA reference to the port.

Iran and India have been trying to resolve differences with Tehran dissatisfied with the pace of work carried out by Indian companies in Shahaid Beheshti Terminal in Chabahar. New Delhi blames the US sanctions imposed on Iran in 2018 for the slow pace of work in the port. But the Iranians point out that India has secured a waiver from the sanctions for its specific activity in Chabahar.

Experts say increased activity in Chabahar will facilitate trade between the Indian Ocean and Afghanistan, landlocked countries in Central Asia and with Russia.Both leaders are expected to meet in South Africa later next week.

India also wants the Chabahar port included in the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a sanctions-proof land-sea transportation corridor passing from Iran through over a dozen countries to Russia, Central Asia and Caucasus. In the conversation with PM Modi, Raisi underscored more interaction on the INSTC.

The two countries are now in search of a broader agreement on Chabahar that could lead to a major increase in cargo transit via the port.

Interestingly, the Iranian emphasis on Chabahar comes a week before PM Modi visits Greece where India is exploring the possibility of utilising its Piraeus port instead of the Chabahar port. India could send the goods to either the Dubai port or the Adani-owned Haifa port in Israel from where they can go to the Piraeus transshipment complex.

“India’s Arabian-Mediterranean (Arab-Med) Corridor to Europe is an emerging multi-modal, commercial corridor that could radically reconfigure trade patterns between the Indian Ocean Region, the Middle East and Europe by creating an arc of commercial connectivity,” noted a paper written by Micheal Manchum for the National University of Singapore.