Tags
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday pledged up to $500mn to develop the southern Iran port of Chabahar, in a move to give his country trade access to Iran, Afghanistan and central Asia.
The route is currently all but blocked by Pakistan, long at odds politically with India.
The deal, which runs in conjunction with the development of road and rail links through Iran to Afghanistan, also represented a strategic victory for India over China, which has been competing to develop the port.
Modi signed the development deal on the first visit by an Indian leader to Iran in 15 years. He was joined by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani.
"This deal will be like spring for all three countries," Rouhani said at a joint news conference, a play on the name of the Chabahar port. The word "bahar" means spring in Farsi.
The project means India will be able to tap into the Iranian and Afghan markets, and landlocked Afghanistan will also get an alternate to the port of Karachi in Pakistan.
"This is a corridor of peace and prosperity," Modi said of the trilateral deal in a tweet. "It will positively impact the lives of people and deepen economic ties."
Talks to develop the port have been underway for some years, but the nuclear deal that Iran signed with Western powers last summer, as well as the removal of some sanctions earlier this year, gave the project momentum.
Chabahar is about 100 km from Pakistan's Gwadar seaport which China is developing as part of a $46bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
The Chinese project, coming on top of investments in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives raised some disquiet in India about China's expanding reach in the region and prompted faster movement on the Iranian project.
There are no comments.
SPORT Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when you are saying farewell to those that have left a positive impression. That was the case earlier this month when Canada hosted Mexico in a friendly at BC Place stadium in Vancouver.
TECHNOLOGY Some 60mn primary-school-age children have no access to formal education
CULTURE Lekhwiya’s El Arabi scores the equaliser after Tresor is sent off; Tabata, al-Harazi score for QSL champions
ARABIA The Yemeni Minister of Tourism, Dr Mohamed Abdul Majid Qubati, yesterday expressed hope that the 48-hour ceasefire in Yemen declared by the Command of Coalition Forces on Saturday will be maintained in order to lift the siege imposed on Taz City and ease the entry of humanitarian aid to the besieged
ARABIA Some 200 teachers from schools across the country attended Qatar Museum’s (QM) first ever Teachers Council at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) yesterday.
ARABIA The Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) of Qatar and the Indonesian Supreme Court (SCI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on judicial co-operation, it was announced yesterday.
ECONOMY Sri Lanka is keen on importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar as part of government policy to shift to clean energy, Minister of City Planning and Water Supply Rauff Hakeem has said.
