In a bid to circumvent Pakistan and open a route to landlocked Afghanistan, India will sign a contract to develop Phase-1 of Iran’s Chabahar Port during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Islamic nation beginning Sunday. Modi’s first visit to the Shite nation will also feature discussions on terrorism and extremism in the region as well as on India’s desire to secure energy assets for a fast growing economy. The visit of Prime Minister to Iran will focus mainly on connectivity and infrastructure, energy partnership with Iran, boosting bilateral trade, promoting regular consultation on peace and stability particuarly in our region and extended neighbourhood and encouraging people-to-people contacts and relations between the two countries. For India, development of Chabahar Port in southeast Iran will help circumvent Pakistan and open up a route to landlocked Afghanistan where New Delhi has developed close security ties and economic interests. From Chabahar Port, the existing Iranian road network can link up to Zaranj in Afghanistan, about 883 km from the port. The Zaranj-Delaram Road constructed by India in 2009 can give access to Afghanistan’s garland highway, thereby establishing road access to four major cities – Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif. Besides signing of commercial contract for Chabahar Phase-1, Modi will witness signing of a trilateral agreement on transport and transit corridor among India, Afghanistan and Iran. The trilateral agreement will be a game-changer for regional connectivity especially for Afghanistan which can find an assured and reliable alternate route to access India via sea. The route will also significantly enhance prospects of India’s connectivity with Afghanistan, Central Asia and beyond such as North-South corridor. Both Iran and India have stakes in peace and stability in the region which faces several challenges including terrorism, violent extremism and peace and stability in Afghanistan, on which three countries had their first trilateral consultations last month. India and Iran had in 2003 agreed to develop Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman outside the Strait of Hormuz, near Iran’s border with Pakistan. But the project moved slowly because of western sanctions against Iran. The sanctions were lifted in January and since then India has been pushing for conclusion of an agreement.
