Chabahar-Gwadar

Iranian President, Speaks in a Joint press briefing with Indian Prime Minister and Afghan President

 The trio of Iran, India, and Afghanistan sign transit accord on Chabahar port, Chabahar is located in southern part on Iran almost 72km west of Gwadar harbor. This is only port of Iran in deep water which makes sense from a strategic and logistical viewpoint for Iran. All ports except Chabahar are lock in Persian Gulf, cargo ships have to pass by Strait of Hormuz a 22 Km wide strait to get the port. Today Almost 50% of Iranian trade is by Bandar Abbas sea port which is located in Hormuz Strait. Chabahar has a natural advantages that if Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz are being Blockade, then Iran can continue its trade via Chabahar. Chabahar is situated in forehead of Strait of Hormuz region which holds about two-thirds of the total world oil reserves and from where an estimated 17 billion barrels of crude oil passes daily.

Chabahar will provides an opportunity to India to expand her trade with Central Asians countries by bypassing Pakistanis route of wagah-torkham, which remain close over the year due to political situation of Pakistan and India. Most of Afghan and central Asian countries sea trade is via Karachi Sea port but this transit route doesn’t provide trade opportunity to enjoy trade with India. As Karachi is the nearest sea port from Kabul, Dushanbe, Tashkent and Bishkek, it is 1404.33, 1971.33, 2537.94 and 3130.64km away from them respectively. But after being operational Chabahar is going to replace Karachi as single transit route for Afghanistan. As by the agreements between the trio Kabul will link to Chabahar by multirotor express way and railway, which we give afghan to connect to world through sea is very less time than even before.As Iranian officials state that they wish to have Bandar Abbas remain as the port for Russian and European trade and have Chabahar become the port for trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia.

CPEC is a key project for Pakistan to boast it’s economic, but for CPEC Pakistan is totally based upon China while in Iran and Afghanistan both China and India are working hard to capture the economic and Strategic befits. For example China offer a loan of $75 Million for an oil terminal and other then it Chinese companies are investing $12 billion in oil fields of Iran. While now India plans to invest $500 million in first phase and then for a free trade zone India will invest $20 Billion. These investment will boast up Iranian economic and also will give an upper hand to Chabahar Port over Gwadar. The Situation of Baluchistan and Pashtun Majority areas will also play a key role in the operations on Gwadar port. As Chabahar port is in a same area where security situation is quite sound.

The countries of Central Asia will likely benefit from both Chabahar and Gwadar. Diversifying its import and export routes is a logical economic and political step. Although one should not exaggerate the economic benefits to be reaped. As for the competition between the two ports, it will not be a “winner take all” outcome but rather one port earning the greater share of trade. And the “winner” in this respect will likely be Chabahar, at least in the short term. Iran is more stable than Pakistan, it has better relations with Afghanistan and the Central Asian states, and unlike the Gwadar route its proposed route goes through relatively stable parts of Afghanistan. As long as Iran avoids outright conflict with the United States or any sort of domestic turmoil it should come out of this competition with an advantage.