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India to tie up with Iran for Chabahar, its answer to Pak's Gwadar port

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NEW DELHI: India will push ahead this week with plans to build a port in southeast Iran, two sources said, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi keen to develop trade ties with Central Asia and prepared to fend off US pressure not to rush into any deals with Iran.

India and Iran agreed in 2003 to develop a port at Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman, near Iran's border with Pakistan, but the venture has made little progress because of Western sanctions on Iran.
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Now, spurred on by Chinese President Xi Jinping's signing of energy and infrastructure agreements with Pakistan worth $46 billion, Modi wants to swiftly sign trade deals with Iran and other Gulf countries.
"Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari will travel on a day-long tour to Iran to sign a memorandum of understanding for development of Chabahar port," a shipping ministry source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The deal will be signed on Wednesday, he said.
Encouraged by the prospect of a deal between world powers and Tehran by June 30 on Iran's nuclear programme, after which sanctions could be eased, India recently sent a delegation to Iran to scout for trade, energy and infrastructure deals.
The United States cautioned India and others last week against strengthening ties with Iran ahead of a final agreement. But Indian officials said New Delhi could not ignore its national interest and noted a report that a US energy delegation was visiting Iran.
"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.

Bypassing Pakistan: India wants to build the port as it would cut transport costs and freight time to Central Asia and the Gulf by about a third. The port is also central to India's efforts to circumvent Pakistan and open up a route to landlocked Afghanistan where it has developed close security ties and economic interests.
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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.
Chabahar is just along the coast from Gwadar port in Pakistan that is being developed with China's help, said Robin Mills, head of consulting at Dubai-based Manaar Energy. "So there is a strategic element for the Indian side".
Iran could rapidly develop as a destination for global investors if Western sanctions are lifted and Modi wants to fast-track the port project before Tehran has time to rethink. At the weekend, Iranian media reported that Iran had turned down an Indian request seeking multi-billion-dollar development rights for the Farzad B gas field.
"I think India should try to push ahead and take advantage wherever they can before Iran changes its mind," Mills said.

India to tie up with Iran for Chabahar, its answer to Pakistan's Gwadar port with China - The Economic Times
 
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It is in India's interest that relations between west and Iran improve specially US and Iran.
 
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:bounce::bounce:If they think they have achieved a position above us then let them. Pakistan should concentrate on Gwadar it about time that port became operational.
 
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How is this an answer to Gwadar?:lol:
P.S: apart from territory you will also have to bypass our maritime territory (even ever chabahar era operational).

Bypassing your maritime territory isn't a problem, not a heck of a distance. No threats there. I agree that it has no connection to Gwadar but is an alternative for India to access Afghanistan & central Asia if necessary.
 
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:bounce::bounce: Pakistan should concentrate on Gwadar it about time that port became operational.
Just keep concentrate on " How to keep China's interest alive" all thing will be happen automatically.
 
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How is this an answer to Gwadar?:lol:
P.S: apart from territory you will also have to bypass our maritime territory (even ever chabahar era operational).
Gwadar is basically China's entry in Arabian Sea and connecting infra-structure (Roads etc) built is a way of bypassing India (through Karakorum highway).
Chabahar on the other hand is important to India for accessing central Asia especially the Gas lines that will come to Iran. In longer term with US trying to make peace with Iran, India is pinning a lot of hope on Iran for its future Energy requirements.
I'm not sure if these developments mean anything militarily, but in strategic economic terms, the ports are important to both India and China respectively.

Ok. Good Luck. I thought India was a big country. It is but its brain is of a mouse. Cant you guys think beyond Pakistan?
Don't think Pakistan is referred or thought off as a threat here, its more of a catching up game with China.
 
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Bypassing your maritime territory isn't a problem, not a heck of a distance. No threats there. I agree that it has no connection to Gwadar but is an alternative for India to access Afghanistan & central Asia if necessary.
yea like i said the only benefactor is Afghanistan nobody else.
 
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Gwadar is basically China's entry in Arabian Sea and connecting infra-structure (Roads etc) built is a way of bypassing India (through Karakorum highway).
Chabahar on the other hand is important to India for accessing central Asia especially the Gas lines that will come to Iran. In longer term with US trying to make peace with Iran, India is pinning a lot of hope on Iran for its future Energy requirements.
I'm not sure if these developments mean anything militarily, but in strategic economic terms, the ports are important to both India and China respectively.


Don't think Pakistan is referred or thought off as a threat here, its more of a catching up game with China.
Gwadar isn't just for China's entry to the Arabian but also Central Asia (one only has to check out the map).


Anyways .. I still wonder why indians and indian media is so hellbent on whining over gwadar ?
 
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