…“We don’t want to miss this opportunity and will move as expeditiously as possible,” the Shipping Ministry source said. India’s cabinet approved the plan to develop Chabahar port last year…
Iran has also proposed a free-trade agreement with India, a Trade Ministry source said. Rupee-denominated trade with Iran, started in 2012 because of complications arising from sanctions, has almost doubled Indian exports to Tehran in the past two years to $4 billion.
Now Indian exporters want to build on that, using a free-trade zone being developed near Chabahar to export more to the Commonwealth of Independent States, made up of former Soviet Republics, said Mumbai-based Khalid Khan, regional head of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations.
"It will be Modi's gift to Iran and Indian exporters," he said of the port project......
India has already spent about $100 million to construct a 220-km (140-mile) road in western Afghanistan to link up with Chabahar port.
Last week Modi assured Afghan President Ashraf Ghani of India's commitment to building the port......
Pakistan has its compulsions vis a vis Saudi Arabia which would stop them from normalising relations with Iran. India on the other hand is improving relationship with both.
Thats why its important to stop celebrating 46m agreements, most of which are loans, and start moving on with getting trades and exports done with a lot of countries, most of them should be the neighbors.
There is still a lot of potential. Pakistan has been and will be doing with Iran, turkey, central asian states etc. The important thing is focus.
Modi on the other side as we all know is not only an extremist hindu but also a businessman. So one side he’ll step in to disturb Pakistani progress but also on the other side improve indian economy. But that shouldnt stop us from doing wut we are supposed to do.
What lethargy ? there have been meetings with Afghan govt officials on a number of occasions. But the security situation in Afghanistan makes normal trade and investment nearly impossible. Otherwise, wouldnt they have built the TAPI pipeline by now? Iran Pakistan trade is hindered by the sanctions (among other issues). The pipeline from Iran was originally supposed to be Iran-Pakistan-India, until India backed out. Why wasnt India accused of being lethargic about trade then ?
India has been involved with Iran for a long time. They started working on this port way back in the 90’s. It still hasnt gotten of the ground. I doubt it will be fully functional any time soon.
Going through Iran to get to Afghanistan doesn’t seem like a sound trade policy gong forward. It adds miles to bilateral trade, which equates to a increased shipping cost. Not to mention the huge infrastructure investment thats required. If Modi were a genuine businessman, he would do is damnedest to normalize relations with Pakistan so as to ensure that Indian goods are allowed easy access to Afghan markets. But considering how Indians are behaving along the border, i doubt Modi has any intention of working amicably with Pakistan.
Pakistan isnt solely responsible for the lack of regional cohesion. The fact that Iran and Afghanistan are so unstable for one reason or another, makes trade virtually impossible.
In the case of Afghanistan, India is fortunate to not have them as a neighbor, and so they have no political differences of the kind that exist between Afghanistan and Pak.
In the case of Iran, they still have to consider the possibility that the Nuclear talks will fail and Sanctions will not be lifted. Then what becomes of this port their investing in ?