India and Iran are reported to have reached a final agreement on the Chabahar Port project. This new long-term agreement will replace the original contract that was entered into earlier, which only covers India’s operations at the Shahid Beheshti terminal in the Chabahar port and was being renewed every year. The new agreement has a validity of ten years and will be automatically extended.
In an update on Monday, Jaishankar said on X that he began his engagements in Tehran by meeting Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash. “Detailed and productive discussion on establishing a long-term cooperation framework with respect to Chabahar port. Also exchanged views on the International North-South Transport Corridor,” he added.
In order to boost regional trade India has been pushing for the Chabahar port project, especially for its connectivity to Afghanistan since 2016, when the sub-continent signed a tripartite agreement with Iran and the now Taliban-led nation to develop the terminal. The Chabahar port is also seen as a key hub for the INSTC project. In the year 2021, at a connectivity conference in Tashkent, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had projected the Chabahar port as a key regional transit hub, with potential for connectivity to Afghanistan. In November 2023, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra discussed with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian ways to boost connectivity through strategic Chabahar port and the current situation in West Asia arising out of the Hamas-Israel conflict.
