Afghanistan, India and Iran to ink transit agreement

[Maulik]

A transit agreement is due to be signed between Afghanistan, India and Iran.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, the Afghan government remains committed to work with Iran and India to finalize the transit agreement in a bid to link Afghanistan with the regional countries.

Trade activities will be enhanced among the regional countries through the Chabahar port, which is situated 72km (44 miles) west of Pakistan’s Gwadar Port.

Deputy Chief of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI), Khan Jan Alokozay, said the agreement would help address the major transit issues that Afghan traders are facing. He further added that the agreement would help reduce the transit costs and shorten the transit route between Afghanistan and regional countries.

India is set to sign the agreement and invest over USD 100 million in the Chabahar port. The port is already connected to the city of Zaranj in Afghanistan’s southwestern province of Nimruz and can serve as India’s entry point to Afghanistan, Central Asia and beyond.

Afghanistan, India and Iran to ink transit agreement | Wadsam

[Maulik]

India accelerates Iranian port project after U.S.-Iran thaw | Reuters
(Reuters) - - India is sending a team to Iran to speed up work on a port that will provide access to resource-rich Central Asia and Afghanistan, officials said, moving quickly to take advantage of a thaw in Iran's relations with the West.

The port of Chabahar in southeast Iran is central to India's efforts to circumvent Pakistanand open up a route to landlocked Afghanistan where it has developed close security ties and economic interests.

The port, which India is partly financing, will also be another gateway to Iran itself for Indian commerce.

Work has been slow on expanding berthing facilities and container terminals, partly because India has been reluctant to press ahead too enthusiastically for fear of upsetting the United States, keen to isolate Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

On Monday, just after Iran sealed an initial accord with six powers including the United States to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the easing of some sanctions, Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh met Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Rahimpour to discuss economic opportunities.

The Iranian official was in New Delhi on a pre-arranged visit but as news of the deal in Geneva broke, the talks turned to ways to fast-track the long-running port project.

"For us, Chabahar is a strategic necessity, otherwise we don't have access to Afghanistanand central Asia," a foreign ministry official said.

Pakistan, loath to see growing Indian influence in Afghanistan, does not allow India to send goods through its territory to Afghanistan and has only recently begun to allow a trickle of Afghan exports to cross through to India.

The Indian ministry official said while India's involvement in the port development was not strictly under the international sanctions that had been imposed on Iran, any improvement in Iran's ties with the West would build confidence in the project.

"The Geneva agreement certainly opens up the space to pursue this at greater pace."

India has committed $100 million to upgrading facilities at the port after spending $100 million on building a 220-km (140-mile) road in a dangerous stretch of western Afghanistan to link up with Chabahar.

The port on the Gulf of Oman is 72 km (44 mile) from Pakistan's deep-water Gwadar port, which Chinahas built as part of a plan to open up an energy and trade corridor from the Gulf, across Pakistan to western China.

INDIAN ATTENTION

Both India and China have been trying to secure energy supplies for their growing economies, investing in projects abroad and offering engineering and financial assistance in a race that extends from Africa to Latin America.

Chabahar is the first foreign port that India is directly involved in developing. India is struggling to modernize its own congested ports. China, on the other hand has helped build a string of ports in foreign countries, including Gwadar and Sri Lanka's Hambantota port.

"Chabahar is going to see more Indian attention over the next few months," said Shashank Joshi, who specializes in the Middle East and South Asia at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

"India was caught by surprise over the nuclear deal, and it does not want to be caught sleeping if a U.S.-Iran thaw develops quickly."

A team from the state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust which manages India's largest container port near Mumbai and the Kandla Port Trust will travel to Chabahar in the next few weeks and stay a month for a technical and commercial assessment.

"We have an opportunity here, the port has a strategic location," said an official at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

"But we also need to see the viability. There are not many ships going there at the moment. We have to make projections about traffic, revenue."

The port has the capacity to handle 2.5 million tonnes (1.1023 ton) a year, which Iran would like to increase to 12.5 million tonnes. Iran has made the area adjacent to Chabahar town a free trade zone in the hope of spurring growth in its poor southeast.

The Indian operators plan to set up a special mechanism to finance part of the port's infrastructure and they want the Iranians to give it long-term rights to operate it.

Iran hasn't given any indication about that yet and, according to one Indian official, it wants more Indian finance to develop the port as well as rail and road links.

"It seems the strategic ramifications for projects like Chabahar are still being puzzled out by all sides. Short-term it's easier to move ahead but long-term less clear," said Andrew Small, a specialist at German Marshall Fund of the United States.

India accelerates Iranian port project after U.S.-Iran thaw| Reuters

[DSM0305]

Goodbye Pakistan dependence, and hello to long lasting Indian friendship.

[Maulik]

This transit will also provide india access to the energy rich central asian countries.

[ډګروال]

This transit will also provide india access to the energy rich central asian countries.

india shouldnt have any acces to central asia.
it should be the other way around like it has always been.

[Al-Afghani]

india shouldnt have any acces to central asia.
it should be the other way around like it has always been.

If India imports products from Central Asia, it is better if it goes through Afghanistan. It will create jobs, and bring investments to us. They can always ignore us, and reroute everything through Iran or maybe even Paki land.

[ډګروال]

If India imports products from Central Asia, it is better if it goes through Afghanistan. It will create jobs, and bring investments to us. They can always ignore us, and reroute everything through Iran or maybe even Paki land.

India wants political and cultural influence on Afghanistan and rob afghan natural resources.

[DSM0305]

India wants political and cultural influence on Afghanistan and rob afghan natural resources.

They wanna rob Afghans by invest in Afghanistan and create jobs, plus trade with us. Build buildings and economically support us by trade... They are so evil, helping afghan nation is just so evil... how can these evil Indians even think about helping us, helping is clearly a bad thing...

[ډګروال]

They wanna rob Afghans by invest in Afghanistan and create jobs, plus trade with us. Build buildings and economically support us by trade... They are so evil, helping afghan nation is just so evil... how can these evil Indians even think about helping us, helping is clearly a bad thing...

Its funny how india want to "help" Afghanistan whille millions in their own country are living in dirt.

[DSM0305]

Its funny how india want to "help" Afghanistan whille millions in their own country are living in dirt.

It called marked economy. USA who have the worlds biggest economy also have poor people, as in matter of fact every nation in this world have poor people. So to be honest I cant see how your argument can even remotely be valid.

Here is an Indian song you can hear while reading this.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

[hamid954]

This agreement is excellent and it may stop fascist Irani government from abusing Afghans in Iran and Irani policy towards Afghanistan. I support Afghan-Indian friendship 100% like my page If you do too.