Iran and India’s Road to Afghanistan _ the Indian Express

8/10/2019 Iran and Indias Road to Afghanistan _ the Indian Express

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Summitry And Substance

India And The Middle East:

Finding A New Balance

Imagining Greater India

Written by C Raja Mohan | Posted: October 20, 2014 4:37 pm

Delhis decision, annonunced over the weekend, to

participate in the development of the Chabahar port in

Southeastern Iran has not come a day too soon.

The idea was first mooted more than a decade ago during the

visit of the Irans president, Mohammed Khatami, as the chief

guest at Indias Republic Day celebrations in January 2003.

That it has taken so long to move on this important project

underlines the fact that the UPA government failedto get its

act together on critical projects involving Indias national

security.

If the finance ministry refused to

fund strategic projects within and

beyond borders during the UPA

rule, the government of Narendra

Modi is eager to press ahead by

Iran and Indias Roadto Afghanistan

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2/6

Chinese Takeaway:

Lanka Pit-Stopresolving the inter-ministerial

disputes. With Arun Jaitley in

charge of both the finance and

defence ministries, it has become a lot easier to convince

the bureaucrats of the finance ministry.

Both Delhi and Tehran value the Chabahar port as a means to

improve their geopolitical leverage vis a vis Pakistan and

pursue their common interest in providing Afghanistan and

Central Asia alternative routes to the Indian Ocean.

The NDA government has sanctioned nearly $85 million the

construction of two berths at Chabahar and the development

of a container terminal.

The proposal for Chabahar port came up in the context of

Pakistans plans to develop a greenfield port at Gwadar on

Pakistans Makran coast with substantive financial assistance

from China at the turn of the last decade.

Tehran saw the Gwadar project as undermining Irans

position as the gateway to Central Asia and decided to

develop Chabahar, which is located not too far to the West

from Gwadar. Delhi, which long chafed at Pakistans refusal

to provide overland access to Afghanistan, viewed the

Chabahar port as a credible alternative to gaining physical

access to Afghanistan. Land-locked Kabul, whose only route

to the sea is through Pakistan, welcomed the project as a way

to ease its strategic dependence on Islamabad.

Even the United States, which was determined to isolate Iran,

chose to support the efforts by Delhi, Tehran and Kabul to

develop transport corridors that improve international

connectivity with Afghanistan.
http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/chinese-takeaway-lanka-pit-stop/


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TAGS: Chabahar Port Gwadar Project Narendra Modi Government Trilateral Trade

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The importance of Chabahar project has only gone up over

the last decade. Afghanistans strategic vulnerabilities are

increasing amidst the U.S. plans to substantially reduce its

military presence in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile India-Pakistan relations have entered a tense

phase.

The hopes for normalisation of trade relations between the

two countries have begun to evaporate. There is little

prospect that Islamabad will agree to trilateral economic

integration with India and Afghanistan.

Delhi and Tehran must now sit down with the newgovernment in Kabul to negotiate trilateral trade and transit

agreements that will ensure an early realisation of all

economic and strategic benefits that the Chabahar project

promises.

(The writer is a distinguished fellow at the Observer

Research Foundation, Delhi and a contributing editor for TheIndian Express)

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4/6

Harsh Vardhan demoted to

helpDelhi BJP, say leaders

The man is out

of his depths, no doubt. And

he has plenty of degrees but

Delhis torn fabric

Ahmedabad of 70s

and 80s?

In citys Sena heartland,

disappointed workers feel

Shiv Sena

wanted to restrict BJP below60 seats in elections and

Gujarat compulsory vote law:

EC Brahma asks, will you jail

Yes what Gujarat did

was right , at the same time itdoes not mean that people

Comments

MADDY

this port is very important to india and iran not only

strategically but also economically and stability in the region

NOV 11:LATEST NEWS

I am confident of

winning votetrust: Fadnavis09:51 pm, Nov 11,

2014

Jharkhand assemblypolls: Amit Shahreleases

BJP manifesto10:12 pm, Nov 11,

2014
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Iran and India’s Road to Afghanistan _ the Indian Express