Chabahar and Gwadar; Do these names rings bell in your mind? These two are small ports of Iran and Pakistan respectively. Both these cities are in the news since last two weeks and are becoming the new centers of economic warfare between two giants of Asia - India and China; the battlefield has shifted from building their infrastructure within the country to build outside.
Not far from Gwadar is Chabahar Port. Gwadar’s main competitor in this region and better positioned to connect with Central Asian Republics and Afghanistan. And this is where India comes in picture. Chabahar port plays an important role in India’s Central Asian Diplomacy. Connecting landlocked Afghanistan to Chabahar Port is a major part of India’s $750 million USD aid to Afghanistan. Chabahar-Milak-Zaranj-Dilaram route is under construction by India and has already spent about $100 million USD to build a 220-km (140-mile) road in western Afghanistan to link up with Chabahar Port in Iran.
India, Iran and Afghanistan has signed tripartite agreement for giving preferential treatment to Indian goods heading for Afghanistan and other Central Asian Republics. With no immediate solution in place for the ambitious Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline in near future India and Iran discussing laying pipeline in the bed of Arabian sea bypassing Pakistan. 
If this plan takes place, this will give the energy starved India a direct access to Natural Gas reserves of Central Asian Republics especially Turkmenistan. Chabahar port will also facilitate a multi-modal transport link between Indian west coast ports and Russia via Astrakhan by a strategic partnership between India, Iran and Russia.
5 comments:
Question is how much you think India-Middle East trade compared to China-Middle East trade? Well answer is obvious, Guawadar port is solely for trade purpose while India's investment is more of show to deny its dying economical value in the region. CPEC gives china a shorter trade route while Chahbahar will cost more to Indian traders compared to by air or by sea.
Chahbahar also has its military importance for india...
Can you immagine India? China became economic power without any useful access to the hot waters? and you sitting in front of the ocean, can not do anything. If you can not use the existing situation in Indian ocean, what difference will you make after spending poor people's tax money on Chabahr???? nothing will change for you.. in fact this waste of money will definately affect the economy of India
its not about rich and poor its about a step in favour of humanitarian and kick to china,
For instance, a company exporting uranium from Kazakhstan should take it by land to the Black Sea and ship it all the way through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. The process could take 25 days. If the same comes through China’s Lianyuangang port, 40 days.
In contrast, the Iran route could take just about 15 days. And India is now accelerating efforts to build a port in Iran’s Chabahar. Gorgan is not too far from Chabahar. India’s trade with Central Asian markets stood at $746 million in 2012-13 against China’s $46 billion.
America has occupied afganistan to block russia and china from getting connected to warm water. How on earth are they allowing india to construct a port to connect russia to arabian sea? The sole purpose of the port is to transport terrorism in pakistan via afghanistn.
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