<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>India and Iran on Monday signed a 10-year contract to develop and equip the strategic Chabahar port in Iran as India seeks to grow trade in west and central Asia.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The agreement will give India 10-year access to use the port, located close to Iran’s southeastern border with Pakistan, according to Iran’s ministry of roads and urban development.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The contract will, in turn, see India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) invest US$370 million into “providing strategic equipment” and “developing the transport infrastructure of the port”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iran’s urban development minister Mehrdad Bazrpash and India’s ports and shipping minister Sarbananda Sonowal signed the contract in the town of Chabahar, in a ceremony broadcast live on state media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">India in 2016 agreed to finance the development of the Iranian port as a trading hub for central Asia as Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to revive economic ties with Tehran after the lifting of sanctions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Modi and former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani oversaw the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the provision of a line of credit from India’s EXIM Bank to develop the port.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The development of the port however stalled, despite waivers to sanctions that the US began reimposing in 2018 after withdrawing from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Chabahar…can act as a focal point in the transit developement of the region,” Bazrpash said at the signing ceremony.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We are pleased with this agreement, and we have full trust in India,” he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Iran and India are seeking to develop Chabahar port as much as possible, taking into account the interests of the two countries for joint access to regional markets,” the Indian minister said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This “long-term contract symbolises the enduring trust and effective partnership between India and Iran,” he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2019, before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, both countries agreed to speed up the project after a visit by India’s external affairs minster Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to Tehran.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chabahar port is on the Indian Ocean about 100km west of the Pakistan border. Source: AFP&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>