Iran and Pakistan opened the Rimdan-Gabd border crossing on Monday in the presence of Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami and Pakistan’s Minister for Defense Production Zubaida Jalal Khan.
According to IRNA, the opening of Rimdan-Gabd crossing would ease the exchange of goods and transportation of passengers.
Rimdan in Dashtiari District is located 120 km from Chabahar in southeast Iran and 70 km from Pakistan’s Gwadar. It is the best access point for Iran to reach 37% of the population of the world living in Pakistan, China and India.
The opening of the crossing would help accelerate economic activities in the border region and create more opportunities for expanding economic and trade ties between the two countries, Business Recorder reported.
According to Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran Rahim Hayat Qureshi, the Gabd-Rimdan border crossing is halfway between Gwadar and Chahbahar and its opening was aimed at uplifting the region’s people, facilitating trade and people-to-people contacts.
“More border openings and trading points also under active consideration,” he added.
The opening of Rimdan border is one of the most important results of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's visit to Pakistan last month.
Gabd-Rimdan will be the second border crossing to open between Pakistan and Iran. For now, Pakistan and Iran are using the Mirjaveh–Taftan border crossing on a 909-kilometer-long border between the two countries.
In June last year, issues facing trade between the two countries, including trade activities at the land border, were discussed with Pakistani parties and Balochistan trade and business stakeholders.
Most of the trade between Iran and Pakistan is handled through the land route leading to the Mirjavah border crossing (Taftan), and in between the residents of Sistan-Baluchestan Province of Iran and the province of Balochistan, Pakistan.
