Chabahar Port Agreement: Part of India's strategic and economic vision for Central Asia and Europe

On May 13, India and Iran signed a 10-year contract to operate the Chabahar port in Iran.

- Kishore Kumar Biswas

The agreement between India Ports Global Ltd (IPGL) and Iran’s Port and Maritime Organization (PMO) pertains to the operation of the Shahid Beheshti terminal, one of the two projects at Chabahar port.

A brief history

Despite historical ties, India and Iran were not close from 1947 to 1979, partly due to India’s leadership in the Non-Aligned Movement and Iran’s alignment with the USA. Suhasini Haidar mentioned in The Hindu (May 19) that in the 1970s, the USA planned to build a submarine base in Chabahar, but it never materialized. In 1993, India’s Prime Minister Narasimha Rao visited Tehran to build a new relationship with Iran. In 1994, Foreign Minister Dinesh Singh visited Iran, initiating discussions about Chabahar. However, it wasn’t until Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Tehran in 2001, followed by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s visit to Delhi in 2003, that both countries agreed to develop the Chabahar port. The plan included linking Chabahar to the National Iranian Railroad, connecting India to Central Asia and Europe.

After a long gap due to various complexities, India signed a MoU for the development of Chabahar port in May 2015.