Why the Chabahar Port agreement kills two birds with one stone

This is a stellar achievement of Modi Government! Now Pakistan-China axis in our neighborhood has been given a short shrift! Iran & Afgahanistan will further our interests in this region! Chabahar port pact will give a boost to our maritime trade and security!


[h=1]Why the Chabahar Port agreement kills two birds with one stone[/h]
Atmospherics and verbal commitments may make for great photo-ops but the real litmus test of any foreign policy lies in getting down to brass tacks in terms of implementation. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this has been an article of faith. This is why when he took over in 2014, he reviewed India’s commitments to projects in the neighbourhood, particularly in Afghanistan and Bhutan with a view to getting them up and running. Cost over-runs and delays plagued many of them, particularly the Punatsangchu Hydroelectric Project in Bhutan. While the strategic significance of this cannot be underestimated, two other projects hobbled by the same problems caught his eye — the Chabahar Port in Iran and the Salma Dam Project (42 MW) at Herat in Afghanistan.
Situated 72 km west of the Pakistan-China joint venture Gwadar port and on the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the Chabahar Port made its first appearance on the India-Iran bilateral map during the previous NDA regime in 2003.
The Manmohan Singh government understood the significance of the Chabahar Port. But it was shackled by fear of the US sanctions and its impact on the 2005 civilian nuclear agreement. It approved India’s investment only about a decade later when the Iran-US rapprochement became a real possibility. Modi inherited these impediments when he took office. To complicate matters, the Iranians tried to change the joint-venture partner which had been approved by the UPA.


To get the project moving, Modi set up the NDA government’s first informal group of ministers comprising finance minister Arun Jaitley, transport and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan with the National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval, as its coordinator. Last May, Gadkari sealed the Chabahar Port MoU with the Iran Ports and Maritime Organization, promising $85 million direct investment and $150-million credit for its development.
Today, one year later, Modi will sign the Chabahar Port contract and a Trilateral Transit Trade Agreement with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani. The contract promises an enviable number of benefits from the development and operation of two terminals and five multi-cargo berths at the Chabahar Special Economic Zone. This could become India’s trade, transport and energy hub in the coming decade. Incidentally, Modi will dedicate the Salma Dam Project in Herat next month, which is part of a rehabilitation and reconstruction project announced in 2001.


The Chabahar Port will be a game changer for India because it will provide connectivity to Afghanistan, Iran and Eurasia, strategically outflanking an intransigent Islamabad. It is also a counter to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj’s interest in connecting Iran’s Mashhad, near the Caspian Sea, with Zahedan, next to the Afghanistan border, via an India-built 900-km rail line with the Chabahar Port will unlock a new gateway to Central Asia and Europe, bypassing the Pakistan-China arc.
Through a Tripartite Trade and Transport Agreement, India plans to link with the Afghan highway through the Zahedan-Zaranj-Delaram route in Nimroz province to shore up Kabul and also open trade routes with Central Asian (CA) republics, particularly Tajikistan.

During his trip to the five Central Asian republics last year, Modi laid the foundation for India’s entry into the Oman-Iran-Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan Ashgabat Agreement, a multimodal deal, for transporting natural gas to the Chabahar Port, and from there through LNG ships or pipelines for energy-hungry India.
Modi intends to bring back more than the port agreement from Iran. He may also sign a contract to invest more in the Farzad B gas field, which has a potential of 9.7 trillion cubic feet of gas, which could fire the joint-venture urea fertiliser plants in the Chabahar SEZ.
India can also join the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) through Mashhad for trade connectivity to Russia and Europe via the Baltic states. According to NSTC studies, this route saves 60% time and 50% cost compared to the traditional sea route from India to Europe.
The Chabahar Port fits as much into Modi’s plans for energy security as with his maritime security grid with the port sitting astride the vital sea lanes of communication that supplies nearly 55% of the hydrocarbon needs of the South-East and North Asian countries, including China and Japan.
Modi’s reached out to US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to address India’s maritime security concerns in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, particularly in the contentious South China Sea.
India plans to extend its maritime reach in the area between the Persian Gulf and the Pacific with the proposed development of a deep sea port in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with Japan’s help and the logistics support agreement with US.
Foreign policy should be the driver for economic development and this is what has been achieved with regional connectivity on India’s eastern board: Last June, New Delhi signed the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal trade and transport agreement as part of the Saarc connectivity initiatives, even though ties with Kathmandu are yet to overcome the legacy of the previous UPA regime.
The outreach to Pakistan was based on pushing regional connectivity and a trade transit corridor to Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass. But what would have been an economic win-win for both countries has yet to fructify thanks to the fact that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision is still at the mercy of the army and the terror groups it backs.
Public sentiment often drives India’s Pakistan policy. But Modi, unlike his predecessor, grasped the nettle and reached out to Sharif by travelling to Raiwind in Pakistan in December. It was a brave bid to normalise ties. This was done after India supplied four Mi-25 attack helicopters to Afghanistan after mulling over what its ramifications could be for over a decade.
Instead of talking about a pan-Asian trade connectivity, Pakistan is refusing to cooperate on the terror issue.
With the Chabahar Port agreement, Modi has not only engaged with India’s long-term ally Iran but has broken through the strategic encirclement by China and Pakistan. If the future of strategic discourse hinges on maritime trade and security, India is sailing in fairly calm waters for the moment.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/analy...h-one-stone/story-1l2NGMuzJDI6GaUHjaPR7M.html

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[h=1]US backs India-Iran Chabahar port deal as it outflanks China-Pakistan Gwadar project[/h]
New York: Washington broadly supports India and Afghanistan signing a deal with Iran for a transport corridor opening up a new route to Afghanistan via the Iranian port of Chabahar, as it outflanks the $46-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project with Gwadar as its focal point.


Analysts say Washington is acutely aware that China's plans to develop Pakistan's southern coastal fishing town of Gwadar into an economic hub, potentially redraws the region’s geopolitical map. It gives China a new trade link from its relatively undeveloped west to key Arabian Sea shipping routes at the mouth of the oil-rich Persian Gulf — giving it potentially strategic as well as economic leverage.
File image of Pakistan's Gwadar Port. AFP

"The massive Gwadar project reveals China's regional power play. There is no comparison in scale and intent between China’s role in Gwadar and India’s in Chabahar, but the Americans are pleased that India is pushing back against the Chinese expansionist mindset," said author and South Asia expert Adam V Larkey.
"The transport corridor will open up a much-needed independent route to Afghanistan via Iran's Chabahar port circumventing Pakistan. This is significant for India and Afghanistan, whose economic stability in turn, is important to the United States. There are fissures in Pakistan’s relations with the US and Afghanistan, while its ties with old friend China remain rock solid," added Larkey.
The Gwadar project is about more than simple trade — its backers hope that once finished, it will bolster Pakistan's economy and potentially give China's navy access to the Indian Ocean. The plan would also strengthen both China and Pakistan's positions versus India, and hedge against US influence in Asia.
India's Chabahar investment has been pending for years, in part owing to US sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, many of which were lifted earlier this year. New Delhi will invest $200 million to develop two terminals and five berths at Chabahar.
Gwadar is being built as a commercial port and not as a naval facility for China’s navy — at least for the time being, but it could potentially be developed as one in the future. Situated on a barren, hammerhead-shaped peninsula in the south of insurgency-ridden Balochistan — and just north-east of the strategically important Straits of Hormuz — Pakistan's generals and China's politicians predict the development of Gwadar will be a game-changer.
It would give China a firm and reliable long-term beachhead in the Indian Ocean and close to the Persian Gulf, "effectively making it a two-ocean power," said Claude Rakisits, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
Some US senators were caught off guard by the announcement of the Chabahar port deal, but the Obama administration has batted for India.
"For India to be able to contribute to the economic development of Afghanistan, it needs access that it does not readily have across its land boundary. And India is seeking to deepen its energy relationship with the Central Asian countries and looking for routes that would facilitate that," assistant secretary of state for South Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told the Senate foreign relations committee on Tuesday.
Biswal assured the senators that the Obama administration has been "very clear with the Indians what our security concerns have been and we would continue to engage them on those issues".