Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh may stopover in Tehran enroute to Delhi

NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh may have a stopover in Tehran on Saturday enroute to Delhi from Moscow in what would be first Indian Ministerial visit to Iran since outbreak of pandemic.

If Singh does have a stopover in Tehran it will assist to keep momentum in bilateral ties amid tumultuous geo-politics. Iran is a key neighbour to the West and part of India’s extended neighbourhood and Delhi has wide ranging interests from energy to security to connectivity.

Iran remains India’s gateway to Central Asia, Afghanistan and Eurasia.

Recently Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in a significant move launched his twitter handle in Hindi in what can enable wider outreach with India as the two countries safeguard to maintain their strategic partnership notwithstanding sanctions. Earlier the Supreme Leader tweeted in Farsi, Arabic, Urdu, French, Spanish, Russian and English.

While Iran has recently signed a mega deal with China, Tehran and Delhi continue to cooperate in strategically located Chabahar Port and are trying to expedite conclusion of Preferential Trade Agreement to enhance business ties.

The Chabahar Port built with India's assistance has recently witnessed cargo movement to South Asia and Southeast Asia notwithstanding slowdown in the global trade due to Covid.

The first shipment of Iran’s aquatic products has been sent to Thailand via Chabahar Port recently, ET had earlier reported. A shipment of non-edible fishes was also sent to the Indian port of Mundra via Chabahar. Another shipment of Afghanistan’s transit goods has been shipped to India through Shahid Beheshti terminal in Chabahar Port.

In 2016, Iran, India, and Afghanistan decided to jointly establish a trade route for land-locked Afghanistan and Central Asian countries.

India had also sent consignments of wheat to Afghanistan through Chabahar Port in the past.

In February 2019, the Afghanistan-Iran-India trade corridor through Chabahar Port was officially inaugurated. Iran is also key to INSTC shortest route from India to Russia via multi-modal transport.

Couple of months back Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson had tweeted, “#Iran has a longstanding policy of maintaining balanced, friendly relations w/ all Eurasian & E/S Asian powers. Our potential longterm cooperation agreements w/ #China & #Russia, & our continued joint work w/ #India in Chabahar prove this. We are determined to uphold this policy”.

This came amid firefighting by India and Iran over Delhi’s participation in the proposed Chabahar-Zahedan railway project. India's problem with Iran has been its insistence to give Chahbahar-Zahedan railway contract to Khatam al-Anbiya, a Revolutionary Guard entity, which is under US secondary sanctions. However, both sides remain committed to the Chabahar Port project.

In an interview with English daily The Tehran Times, Indian envoy to Iran Gaddam Dharmendra had said, “We are also neighbours, we are maritime neighbours, and now with Chabahar Port as the anchor of the two countries' trade relations, we have become maritime partners as well”.

“We are grateful that Iran has trusted India with the first phase of developing Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar,” he said, adding, “Currently, Indian partners are using Iranian facilities in the port but we have placed orders for the necessary equipment from China, Italy, Finland, and Germany and hope that the first delivery will be in October.”

“We see Iran as a pivot for our economic interactions with Central Asia, with Eastern Europe through Azerbaijan and with CIS countries. For this, we have two transport corridors, one is Chabahar as the gateway to Central Asia, and the other is Bandar Abbas. We have also partnered with Afghanistan to transit goods through this port,” the envoy said.

It may be recalled that a lease contract for two terminals and five berths at the Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar was signed in 2016 between Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation (PMO) and Indian Ports Global Ltd (IPGL). The phase-I of the Shahid Beheshti Port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

The Chabahar Port was operationalised in December 2018. Iran is planning to increase the capacity of the port from the current 2.5 million tonnes to 8.5 million tonnes. The port will be part of INSTC to connect Central Asia via Afghanistan.