Indian Prime Minister's Visit to Tehran; Agreement on Chabahar Port Expected

Reports indicate that Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, will depart for Tehran on Sunday afternoon, June 2, leading a high-level political, economic, and cultural delegation from New Delhi. According to the IRNA news agency, the goals of this visit include the development of the Chabahar port, investment in the oil and gas sector, increasing trade and commerce exchanges, and signing a memorandum of understanding and cultural cooperation program between the two countries. Reports suggest that Ashraf Ghani, the President of Afghanistan, is also expected to visit Iran on Tuesday to sign a trilateral agreement regarding the Chabahar transit port. India and Afghanistan aim to utilize Iran's Chabahar port for access to the sea, and Modi has emphasized the importance of Chabahar in becoming a center for transit, energy, and trade in the region. India is seeking new routes for its increasing exports to Central Asia and prefers the eastern Iranian transit route centered around Chabahar over the routes through Karachi and Gwadar in Pakistan due to political disputes with Pakistan. Iran and India reached an agreement in 2003 to expand Chabahar port, but the project progressed slowly due to sanctions against Tehran. In the past year, the Chabahar Free Zone has allocated 50 hectares of land on the Makran coast to Afghan traders, and 130 companies have been registered in Chabahar by Afghan nationals. Abdullah Abdullah, the Chief Executive of the Afghan government, also visited Tehran and Chabahar last December to review the transit situation at Chabahar. Currently, Chabahar port has a loading and unloading capacity of less than five million tons of goods per year, but this figure can exceed 20 million tons under the port's development plans. The partnership agreement for India's development of phase one of Chabahar port was signed in May 2015 in Tehran, with India's investment in Chabahar announced at 85 million dollars. However, this investment never reached the implementation stage despite extensive negotiations, leading Iran to consider options other than India. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also reiterated the request for an 8 billion dollar investment from India during a meeting with Modi on July 10 last year at the Shanghai summit in Ufa, Russia, urging India to play a larger role in Iran. Following these emphases, the Indian government announced that during Modi's visit to Iran starting Sunday, the investment discussions in Chabahar would be finalized, with India planning to invest about 200 million dollars in various projects at the port. Modi's visit to Tehran marks the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Iran in 15 years; this visit holds significant importance for both countries due to the lifting of some sanctions against Iran and the removal of certain investment barriers in Iran.