India to open Chabahar port in Iran next year: Government
Chabahar Port
Union Minister for road and transport Nitin Gadkari had said the port would open this year but the deadline was missed.
The government said today the Chabahar Port in Iran will be operational next year despite US sanctions against Tehran.
PM Modi had pledged to develop the port as part of a trilateral engagement with Iran and Afghanistan during his visit two years ago to meet President Rohani.
Union Minister for road and transport Nitin Gadkari had said the port would open this year but the deadline was missed.
"We're keen on developing Chabahar port and are hopeful of starting operations in 12 to 18 months," Gadkari had said while on a visit to Iran in August last year.
The Chabahar port located on the Gulf of Oman is a key oil and goods transport link for India, and crucially it will allow the government to bypass Pakistan while transporting goods even as China is helping the Pakistan government to develop the Gwadar port.
"We're keen on developing Chabahar Port and are hopeful of starting operations in 12 to 18 months," Gadkari had said while on a visit to Iran in August last year.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had said India only recognises UN sanctions after US imposed oil sanctions on Iran last month. “We don’t make our foreign policy under pressure from other countries,” she had said.
The port would offer easy accessibility to Commonwealth of Independent States(CIS) countries, Nitin Gadkari said in the statement. Iran is India's third-largest oil supplier.
The CIS countries include Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan also called the Russian Commonwealth.
Although India had recently boosted its import of oil from Iran after sanctions were lifted but the Trump administration recently decided to withdraw from the nuclear deal putting India's Chabahar deal in peril. However, the government has decided to go ahead with the port deal.