Chabahar’s opportunities and challenges

The contract between India and Iran for the investment and operation of the Shahid-Behesti terminal at Chabahar Port for the next ten years highlights the strategic and economic significance of this project amidst ongoing regional tensions.

Chabahar Port and Its Significance:

1. Strategic Importance:The Chabahar project is an important endeavour for both economic and strategic reasons. It represents India’s thinking from the perspective of an extended neighbourhood, and not necessarily as part of its West Asia outlook.
2. Link to Central Asia and Russia:The port is a fulcrum of the International North–South Transport Corridor, a project looking towards seamlessly linking India with Central Asia and Russia, bypassing Pakistan.
3. Ties with Afghanistan:Chabahar is also astutely tuned into the ‘new’ realities of Afghanistan. The Taliban-led interim government in Kabul has also thrown its weight behind the port, offering an investment of $35 million as it looks to secure alternatives and not be economically reliant on Pakistani ports such as Karachi or the China-backed Gwadar.

Bilateral Challenges between India and Iran:

1. Legacy Project:Chabahar is a legacy project, which has its foundations going back to 2003. This was an era when India was opening to developing economic assets abroad. Chabahar in Iran was one, Sakhalin-I in Russia, was another.
2. Limited Economic Cooperation:Instead of expanding projects and economic cooperation beyond Chabahar, many older ones, such as the gas field Farzad-B, which was discovered by Indian state-owned enterprise ONGC Videsh, have now been written off.
3. Geopolitical Interests:The reasons are multifaceted and tied to both country’s views of their national, regional, and geopolitical interests.

Reflection of Diplomacy:

1. Balancing Act:The geopolitics today that surrounds India’s play in Chabahar, and Iran’s leverages, make for an interesting study. This latest iteration of the deal was signed not too long after both Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire and came critically close to a full-scale conflict.
2. US Factor:Recent remarks from the U.S. over potential sanctions against Chabahar stand out as myopic. India’s relations with Iran and the continuity of Chabahar’s development, which offers access to difficult political terrain such as Central Asia, and even Afghanistan, could bring in a significant level of integration and help in building alternatives to China-backed projects.
3. Iran’s Geopolitics:Despite public discourse, China’s heavy financial might and the 2021 strategic deal with Iran, does not automatically make Tehran subservient to Beijing. Iran is a quintessential survivalist state and plays a diverse set of cards in its playbook of geopolitics.

UPSC Mains Questions:

Q. Evaluate the challenges and opportunities in the bilateral relationship between India and Iran, with a special focus on the Chabahar Port.