India explores corridor to Kazakhstan, Eastern Russia via Iran

NEW DELHI: India, notwithstanding impending sanctions on Iran, is attempting to put in place a corridor linking Gujarat and West Bengal to Kazakhstan and Eastern Russia via Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port.

Plans are afoot to link Gujarat’s Mundra Port with Bandar Abbas and connect it to Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railway network and onwards to Eastern Russia. The idea is to not only access markets of this landlocked region but also create a corridor to import natural resources from the region in a shorter period than being done currently, according to officials.

Officials from India and Kazakhstan are meeting in Delhi next week to finetune proposal for the corridor which will run parallel to International North South Transport Corridor and Chabahar corridor both through Iran. While Gujarat is geographically closer to Bandar Abbas, the goal of the proposed corridor is to connect Eastern India with Eurasia in the backdrop of India’s Indo-Pacific construct from Western part of Indian Ocean region to the Pacific.

The proposal for new corridor is the backdrop of Moscow launching talks with Delhi for the creation of a corridor connecting Russia-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman-India. The resource rich and growing economies of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are seeking access to ocean and nearest gateway to ocean is via Iran. Sources said that two big Central Asian republics mindful of sanctions on Iran is seeking to engage with Tehran in their national interest.

Meanwhile, India-Iran-Afghanistan on Tuesday held their coordination meeting in Tehran on operationalisation of Chabahar Port. The Tehran meeting will help draw legal framework for implementation of Chabahar agreement, Secretary (Economic Relations) MEA T S Tirumurti said at the first meeting of Coordination Council of Agreement on the Establishment of an International Transport and Transit Corridor. India has already provided a draft of that framework and will send it to Iran and Afghanistan through diplomatic channel, Tirumurti informed.

Delhi has also proposed forming committees on Chabahar agreement within next two months to follow up implementation of the deal.

Source:ET