The Second Trilateral Working Group Meeting was attended by India, Iran and Uzbekistan on the joint use of Chabahar Port virtually on Dec. 14, 2021.
The meeting was jointly chaired by Sanjeev Ranjan, secretary of India’s Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways; Ali Akbar Safaei, managing director of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization; and Abdossamad Mumenof, secretary of Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Transportation, India’s Ministry of External Affairs reported on its website.
During the meeting, the Indian side made a presentation on Chabahar Port operations and informed that the Indian company, India Ports Global Limited (IPGL), through its wholly-owned subsidiary, India Ports Global Chabahar Free Zone (IPGCFZ), took over Chabahar Port operations in December 2018. Since then, it has handled 160 vessels, 14,420 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) and 3.2 million tons of bulk and general cargo.
The Shahid Beheshti Terminal at Chabahar Port has handled shipments and transshipments from various countries, including Russia, Brazil, Thailand, Germany, Ukraine, Oman, Romania, Bangladesh, Australia, Kuwait, Uzbekistan and UAE.
The participants underlined the important role played by Chabahar Port during humanitarian crises as well as in enhancing regional connectivity. They also took note of the increase in transit traffic between Central Asia and South Asia through the Shahid Beheshti Terminal and discussed the further development of transportation corridor.
Upon the invitation of the Iranian side, India agreed to send a high-level delegation to Chabahar next year. It was decided to hold the third session of the trilateral working group meeting in India at a mutually convenient date.
Uzbekistan will push ahead with a joint plan with India and Iran to promote connectivity through Chabahar Port, as part of the country’s efforts to improve and diversify access to sea routes for trade, senior Uzbek officials have said.
“India is one of our strategic partners and this is an important project,” Uzbekistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Furkat Sidikov said on the sidelines of a roundtable in Tashkent on foreign policy issues.
The first virtual meeting of the trilateral working group on the joint use of Chabahar Port was held last December, he added.
Bakhtiyor Mustafayev, deputy director of the state-backed International Institute for Central Asia, said the government of landlocked Uzbekistan believes it is strategically important to diversify efforts to enhance access to the oceans, Hindustan Times reported.
“Almost 80% of Uzbekistan’s exports and imports move through Central Asian states and Russia, and it would be beneficial for the country to gain access to the Persian Gulf,” he said.
“At the same time, the countries in South Asia are developing fast, and represent a huge market with a population of about two billion. It would be more beneficial to try to combine South Asia and Central Asia.”
Mustafayev noted that enhanced connectivity would also open new doors to improve the security situation and deal with terrorism and extremism across the region.
The takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in mid-August has triggered speculation about the viability of Chabahar Port.
India developed the Shahid Beheshti Terminal as part of its efforts to access Afghanistan while bypassing the territory of Pakistan. The US granted the port a special waiver from sanctions imposed on Iran in view of its strategic importance in shipping supplies to Afghanistan.
US Sanctions Have No Bearing on Chabahar Project: Indian FM
The US sanctions on Iran have not affected India’s Chabahar Port project, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told Lok Sabha (the lower house of India's Parliament) on Dec. 10.
Replying to a question from BSP member Ritesh Pandey, the minister also clarified that the US sanctions are “not relevant” to India’s Chabahar Port project in Iran, The Hindu reported.
During the Question Hour, Pandey sought to know from the government if the US sanctions on Iran had any bearing on India’s project at Chabahar Port and claimed that the Iranian government is “publicly saying that our Chabahar Port project has been miserably delayed” due to sanctions imposed by the US.
The BSP member also claimed that he is “aware” of China trying to work on the project by taking advantage of the US sanctions on Iran, as it did “with the rail link”. He also asked the government if it is working on a “solution”.
“I would like to inform the member that [his] assertion is completely inaccurate. This agreement was signed in 2016. We took possession of the terminal in 2018. We have already supplied six cranes. The terminal is fully functional,” Jaishankar said.
“The US sanctions are not relevant to this project at all.”
In a supplementary question, the BSP member sought to know from the government if India has signed “any backdoor agreement” to continue using Chabahar Port to help Central Asian countries and Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the Afghanistan government.
“All our agreements on Chabahar Port operations are limited to Iran. Originally, there was a trilateral agreement but that was the basis to set it up. In terms of port operations, we are not required to have any agreement with the government of Afghanistan. And I assure you that the port is functioning and functioning back,” the external affairs minister said in his reply.
The bilateral contract between Iran and India was signed on May 23, 2016, with a total value of $85 million for equipping, mechanizing and starting operations at Chabahar under the first phase.
In this regard, a special purpose vehicle – India Ports Global Ltd (IPGL), Mumbai – was incorporated under the shipping ministry.
The development of Chabahar Port will help expand economic and mutual relations between India and Iran, as well as give a further boost to maritime trade between the two countries.
The location of Chabahar Port has strategic advantage and high potential to boost connectivity among India, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and other Commonwealth of Independent States countries, especially eastern CIS nations, and boost trade.
