Chabahar Port Pact- A Review

Chabahar port is located in Southeastern Iran in the Gulf of Oman. It is the only Iranian Port which has direct access to Ocean. It is a strategically located port because it provides direct access to the Indian Ocean, enabling bypassing of Strait of Hormuz, a traditional choke point that separates Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. Incidentally, 1/5th of oil consumed worldwide currently passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

India’s Involvement in Chabahar Port since 1990’s:

Relation between Indian and Iran took off in 1990’s, when both countries came together to support the Northern alliance in Afghanistan against Taliban. Iran is one of the largest suppliers of Oil to India, despite International pressures the countries maintain friendly relationship.

Chabahar Port was initially developed by India in 1990’s. India access trade to Afghanistan and it was reluctant by Pakistan Government as the land-route is through Pakistan. They allow Afghanistan to trade through Pakistan or the oil or material to be traded in India, but reluctant for India to trade in Afghanistan by land route..

During the government of ex- premier Shri. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he announced to build a part at Chabahar giving India access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. However, the project was not developed at that time, due to sanctions applied on Iran by western countries.

The relation between Afghanistan and India is strong and friendly since 1980’s but in 1990’s it get short-widened due to Afghan Civil War and involvement of Taliban with Afghanistan. Once, Afghan Foreign Ministry quoted India as a “brother country” and the relationship between the two as one which “no enemy can hamper”. India support Afghanishtan in many sectors like petrochemicals, technological, cultural and railway sectors.

Importance of Chabahar Port

The Importance of Chabahar for India grew when China started developing the Gwadar Port in Pakistan which is 70 km from Chabahar Port.

Gwadar is the outlet to Indian Ocean from the proposed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) termed as a “game changer” in the region by both the Chinese and the Pakistanis. Gwadar provides tremendous advantage to China, not only in its pursuit of encircling India, but also in the domination of Indian Ocean an unchallenged domain of India so far.

Another major factor that affected India’s outreach to Afghanistan and oil and mineral rich Central Asian Republic (CAR) is the reluctance of Pakistan to allow access to these landlocked regions through its territory and it was the only over- land access available.

It hampered Indian economy interests, and also its security concern because lack of direct access to the terror-ridden nations in the region. Due to this, Pakistan was successful in sheltering the terrorist leaders and they attacked South east asian countries like India.

On 16^th January 2016, the sanctions were lifted, opening an opportunity for India to make progress again and to develop the Chabahar Port. Our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi visited Iran in March 2016 and had meeting with Iran Superior Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani and Afghanistan Prime Minister Ashraf Ghani.

“The Chabahar agreement will expand trade, attract investment, build infrastructure and create jobs for our youth…It is a place to realize the importance of curbing radicalism, removing the shadows of terror and spreading the sweetness of familiarity between our people,” the India’s PM said.

India’s Plan for Chabahar Port:

1. A joint venture between the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and the Kandla Post, will invest $85 million in developing two container berths with a length of 640 metres and three multi-cargo berths.

2. The contract is for 10 years and it could be extendable. The phase one of the port construction will take 18 months.

3. The first two years of the contract are grace period which means India doesn’t have to guarantee any cargo for the port.

4. From the third year, India will facilitate 30,000 TEUs (Twenty Foot Equivalent) of cargo at the port. The quantum will rise to 2,50,000 TEUs by the 10th year.

5. The 500-km rail link between Chabahar and Zahedan will link Delhi to the rest of Iran’s railway network.

Benefits to India through this agreement:

The port will make way for India to bypass Pakistan in transporting goods to Afghanistan using a sea-land route.

It will open up route to landlocked Afghanistan where India has developed close security ties and economic interests.

Iran has already built a road from Chabahar to Milak on Iran-Afghan border which will link to Zaranj- Delaram road constructed by Indian Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in 2009 and it will access to Afghan’s” Garland Highway; providing connectivity to Heart, Kandahar, Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif.

The Chabahar port will also give boost to the strategic International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) by being its natural outlet to the Ocean. INTSC is an ambitious project to connect India to European and Central Asian markets through a network of ship, rail and land route. It will connect India to Russia via Iran and Azerbaijan.

Iran is the key gateway in this project. It entails the ship, rail, and road routes for moving freight between India, Russia, Iran, Europe and Central Asia.

The route primarily involves moving freight from India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. The objective of the corridor is to increase trade connectivity between major cities such as Mumbai, Moscow, Tehran, Baku, Astrakhan etc.