Our Bureau
Washington, DC
India signed a 10-year deal with Iran to develop the strategically important Chabahar port. India first entered an agreement to develop the Chabahar port, which is close to Iran’s border with Pakistan, in 2016. It took over operations at the end of 2018. The port opened a transit route for Indian goods and products to Afghanistan and Central Asia, avoiding the land route through Pakistan.
So far, 2.5m tonnes of wheat and 2,000 tonnes of pulses have been shipped from India to Afghanistan through Chabahar port, officials say. Under the new deal, India is set to develop the port further by investing about $370 million in the project.
However, following the deal, the US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said, “Any entity, anyone considering business deals with Iran – they need to be aware of the potential risks that they are opening themselves up to and the potential risk of sanctions.”
On the above developments, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that India’s deal with Iran to operate the strategic Chabahar port would benefit the entire region and people should not take a “narrow view of it”. Jaishankar’s remarks come a day after the United States warned of a “potential risk of sanctions” against any country having business dealings with Iran.
He was speaking at his book launch event in Kolkata, when Jaishankar said, “It’s a question of communicating, convincing and getting people to understand, that this is actually for everyone’s benefit. I don’t think people should take a narrow view of it.”
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, said that Iran has been a force for terrorism not just in the Middle East, but other places as well.
“We are generally having sanctions, with some rare exceptions, where there’s a strategic interest. But, most businesses should be aware of those risks of interacting with Iran as it exports terrorism, as it directly attacks another sovereign nation, as we saw recently,” Garcetti said, referring to Iran’s conflict with Israel.
It is to be noted that US has imposed more than 600 sanctions against Iran-related entities over the past three years.
