Chabahar Trilateral Port Agreement

Recently, Chabahar Trilateral Port Agreement on transport and transit corridor has been signed by India, Iran and Afghanistan.

• Iran's Chahbahar port located in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province on Iran's south-eastern coast is a port of great strategic utility for India. 
• It lies outside the Persian Gulf and is easily accessed from India's western coast.
• From Chahbahar port using the existing Iranian road network, one can link up to Zaranj in Afghanistan which is at a distance of 883 km from the port 
• and then using the "Zaranj-Delaram road" constructed by India in 2009, one can access Afghanistan's garland highway thereby establishing road access to four of the major cities of Afghanistan; Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif.

• The Chabahar port will serve as the Indian Ocean outlet for India's International North- South Transit Corridor (INSTC) initiative. 
• The International North- South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is said to connect South and Central Asia to North Europe via Russia. 
• Iran is a partner nation in INSTC along with Russia, India, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Oman, Syria and Bulgaria.
• With India’s overland access to Central Asia blocked by Pakistan, the Chabahar deep-sea port and the INSTC running northward through Iran and Afghanistan will provide New Delhi vital access to Central Asian, Russian, and ultimately European markets, enabling India to effectively compete with China. 
• For the protection of its interests in Afghanistan, India requires a viable access to the country, and, at present, Iran provides India the most viable transit. 
• India has also announced its intentions to build a 900 kilometer rail link from the Hajigak iron ore mines in Bamiyan to the Chabahar Port and is also working with Iran to build a 600 kilometer road from Chabahar to the Iranian city of Zahedan. 
• India is also considering investing in the Chabahar-FarajBam railway. The Chabahar port will serve as a cost-effective outlet to bring the iron ore to the market.