“President Ashraf Ghani has arrived in Tehran for today’s signing of the Chabahar accord on worldwide transport and transit corridor”, Afghanistan’s Tolo news agency reported.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in Tehran on Sunday on a two-day visit to Iran, met Iran President Hassan Rouhani Today. India and Iran first chose to develop the port in 2003.
“Iran-India relations have always been of significance and today these ties can serve the interests of the two nations and the whole region”, Rouhani said.
In fact, the Iran visit could be Modi’s best harvest in the domain of foreign policy in two years since his coming to power.
PM Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Iran – the first by a Indian Prime Minister in 15 years – comes four months after the worldwide sanctions on Iran were lifted and the global community is re-engaging with the nation.
Chabahar is the closest port to Afghanistan.
The key agreement signed was a contract for development of Phase I of the Chabahar port on southern coast of Iran by an Indian joint venture. However, matters did not move due to the USA sanctions on Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme, which were lifted earlier this year.
The port will allow India to bypass Pakistan to transport goods to Afghanistan and central Asia using a sea-land route.
The Chabahar port project has been over a decade in the works.
IRCON signed an initial agreement to lay a rail line from Chabahar port to Zahedan, while state-owned Nalco signed an MoU to look at possibility of setting up a 0.5 million tonne aluminium smelter at Chabahar free trade zone provided Iran gives cheap natural gas. The sanctions were lifted in January and since then India has been pushing for conclusion of an agreement. China has already been operating the Gwadar Port in Pakistan and that makes it all the more imperative for India to find an equivalent counter-stroke.
India still owes Iran $6.5 billion that Tehran was unable to recover because of the worldwide sanctions.
Iranian media reported that on Monday he will meet both President Hassan Rouhani and the Islamic republic s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his two-day visit.
The Iran-India gas pipeline is another big option for India to ensure its energy security. Modi and Rouhani discussed trade, energy and strategic ties.
The development of the Chabahar port is also expected to give a fillip to the International North South Transport Corridor, another geo-strategic initiative being pushed by India to connect with Central Asia and Russian Federation.
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These apart, security for shipping lane in the Persian Gulf and safety and well-being for millions of Indians working in the volatile West Asia is also something that India to work on while dealing with Iran.
