India committed to use Chabahar port to unlock trade potential with Central Asia: Sonowal

Union minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal affirmed the commitment to use the Chabahar port to manifest the trade opportunities with Central Asian countries, he was speaking in Mumbai after inaugurating the Chabahar day conference.

Significantly, India has helped Iran in building the Chabahar port and an associated rail line, which enables trade without being dependent on Pakistan for the movement of goods between India and Central Asian countries. Pakistan had earlier denied the use of its territory for the transit of goods between India and Central Asia.

Strategic importance of Chabahar port

Chabahar is strategically located in South-Eastern Iran at the mouth of the Gulf of Oman and favours India to ship goods and do trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian countries like Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. However Sonowal urged all the attendees, representatives and stakeholders from the region to further suggest ideas to reduce the transportation time and cost further to make a cheaper, shorter, faster, and more reliable route from India to Iran and Central Asia.

This is additional to India's initiative, International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which is aimed at reducing the time taken for Export-Import (EXIM) shipments to reach Russia, Europe and enter the Central Asian markets. 

The Chabahar port is a key part of India's Indo-Pacific vision to connect Eurasia with the Indian Ocean region. India's Minister of State for Shipping, Shripad Naik, said India's economic activities with Central Asia is getting boosted with the development of trade ties with the land-locked region. "This infrastructure linkage will prosper the trade and bilateral relations between all these countries," Naik said.

Iran has provided incentives for trade via Chabar port

The deputy head of Iran's ports and maritime organisation (PMO) Jalil Eslami, during the event stated the importance of the Chabahar port and that it is contributing majorly in the economic prosperity of India and Iran. He added further on the role Iran has played in unleashing the trade potential between both countries. Eslami informed that Iran has announced major incentives for increasing trade between India and Iran via the Chabahar port. 

"We want to develop Chabahar port as a transit hub looking at its strategic location," Eslami added. 

(Image: @sarbanandsonwal/Twitter)