Bandar Beheshti
Chah Bahar

The Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province in the energy-rich nation’s southern coast is easily accessible from India’s western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan’s Gwadar Port located at distance of around 80 kms from Chabahar. The Chabahar port is being considered as a gateway to golden opportunities for trade by India, Iran and Afghanistan with central Asian countries, besides ramping up trade among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi.

India formally took over operations at Iran's strategic Chabahar Port on 24 December 2018, a move that could have significant geopolitical ramifications in the region. Representatives from India, Iran, and Afghanistan met in Tehran to formally hand over control to state-owned India Ports Global Limited (IPGL). An Iranian official was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying that IPGL had been granted the lease for "a temporary period of 18 months and a ten-year period afterwards." The official added that IPGL’s management would include "loading and unloading, supplying equipment and marketing."

The first phase of the Chabahar port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. The port was built largely by India and was expected to provide a key supply route for Afghanistan while allowing India to bypass rival Pakistan to trade with Central Asia. Under the agreement signed between India and Iran earlier, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-year lease.

The U.S. State Department in November 2017 exempted the Chabahar Port project from sanctions in recognition of its importance to landlocked Afghanistan. The effort to build up Afghanistan's economy is also aimed at reducing Kabul's dependence on foreign aid and putting a major dent in the illicit opium trade that has been a major source of revenue for the Taliban insurgency.

For Afghanistan, access to the sea via Chabahar will ease its dependence on Pakistani ports, which are an uncertain option given the unstable relations between Islamabad and Kabul. This will reduce Afghanistan’s vulnerability to Pakistani pressure. Indeed, Afghan traders have in recent years opted to trade via Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port. In 2008-09, nearly 60% of Afghan imports were transited through Pakistan. In 2016, this figure dropped under 30%. Afghan trade through Iran increased from 15-20% to 37-40% during the same period. Afghan trade via Pakistan can be expected to drop further when Chabahar becomes operational.

Having two important commercial ports, Shahid Beheshti and Shahid Kalantari, in the eastern shore of Chabahar Gulf located in the province of Sistan and Balochistan beside the warm water of the Oman Sea and the Indian Ocean, and being adjacent to two countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and having access to the international waters, and CIS countries, and also being adjacent to Free Trade-Industrial Zone, Chabahar port performs the role.

The executive operations of each port of Shahid Beheshti and Shahid kalantari embarked on 1983 and by completion of 4 berths became operational. Chabahar port called Tees (Teez) port in the past was considered as one of the most important ports of Iran and Middle East in the Makran Sea from the Achaemenids era. In that era, the cargoes have been brought from Eastern Asia and India to the Tees port and were sent to different regions such as Middle East, Middle Asia and the Caucasus. Tees was an important port at the earlier Islamic centuries such that Moghadasi, the historian of fourth century A.H., spoke about its business boom. Chabahar port with an area of 11 km2 is located at the same latitude with the

Miami port in the Florida peninsula of America and the weather conditions of Chabahar port is quite similar to Miami port. Its average annual maximum temperature is 34°C and its average minimum temperature is 10°C. Chabahar weather is very pleasant in summer due to blowing Summer Monsoon Winds of the Indian Ocean. Due to this reason, it is one of the coolest ports of the Middle East in the summer. Nowadays, Chabahar port has been considered as the forehead of the eastern development route and the gate of the international North-South Corridor in order to fulfill the general policies goals of the Regime of Islamic Republic of Iran and the emphases of the supreme Leader based on the development plan of the Chabahar port as the only oceanic port of the country. In this regard, the development plan of the Chabahar port was accomplished in 5 phases on 2007. It was hoped that the first phase of the port development plan would be put to operate soon.

Construction of the port facilities at Chah Bahar was started prior to the Iranian Revolution in 1979. However, the facilities had still not been completed due to the Iran-Iraq War and other regional conflict even by 1987. The facilities were renamed Bandar-e Beheshti after the Iranian Revolution. Bandar Beheshti, located on the Gulf of Oman in the Arabian Sea, has since become an important port facility, designated by the Iranian authorities as a Free Trade Zone, in addition to being another important naval facility.

India and Iran sealed nine agreements during a 16-19 February 2018 visit by the Iranian President to New Delhi including a key accord that leases operational control of part of the Iranian port of Chabahar to New Delhi for 18 months. India is helping develop the port to create a strategic trade route to landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics, bypassing rival Pakistan. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also agreed to step up efforts to bring stability to war-ravaged Afghanistan after holding talks in New Delhi.

"We both will work for restoring peace, stability, prosperity and a pluralistic system in Afghanistan," Modi said. “We want to see our region free from terrorism.” During his three-day visit to India, the Iranian leader, who faces the threat of reimposition of sanctions, focused on seeking Indian investments as he tries to shore up his country’s economy. Prime Minister Modi sent out a reassuring message, saying that both countries want to intensify economic cooperation and increase connectivity and trade. New Delhi has been a key buyer of Iranian oil and gas and maintained trade ties with Tehran even when it faced international sanctions over its nuclear program.

Chabahar is India’s first major overseas port venture and is seen as a counter to China’s development of the Gwadar port in Pakistan. India has committed $85 million for its development and although progress has been slow, the project has taken off the ground with India shipping the first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through Chabahar in October.

Modi called Chabahar a “golden gateway” to Afghanistan and promised to help in construction of infrastructure that will make it possible to send goods from the port onto Afghanistan, and Central Asian countries. “We will support the construction of the Chabahar-Zahedan rail link so that Chabahar gateway’s potential could be fully utilized,” Modi said. Rouhani said the rail line will be an economic boon for both countries. He also said that both sides "are prepared for joint ventures in gas and petroleum sectors" and sought Indian investments in the industrial and mining sectors.

In May 2016 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi finalized a long-awaited contract with Tehran for Chabahar Port, a seaport of strategic importance on the southeastern coast of Iran. During his visit, Modi also met with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Afghan leader Ashraf Ghani in a rare engagement concerning the trilateral transport and transit pact. The pact will presumably provide the legal framework to operate trade corridors with Chabahar as its main hub.

The Chabahar port and railroad are part of India's strategy for maintaining access to Afghanistan. Although the construction of Chabahar Port began in 1982 and India first showed interest as early as 2002, it was not until Modi’s 2016 visit that inroads were made into realizing the project. Together with the road from Delaram, Afghanistan to Zaranj at the Iran-Afghanistan border, as well as the road from Zaranj through Zahedan to Chabahar, India expected to gain access to Afghanistan’s “Garland Road,” which links major Afghan cities including Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif.

Actually, Chabahar is just the tip of the iceberg of India’s geostrategic ambitions. Besides building new berths and upgrades to Chabahar, what interests New Delhi more is a comprehensive scheme that can reshape India’s geopolitics to the northwest and extend its influence further into the Middle East, Central Asia and the Trans-Caucasus. To this end, India committed $400 million in steel to construction of the railway connecting Chabahar and Zahedan, near Afghan border.

Although New Delhi ostensibly highlights economic considerations, such as facilitating trade along the International North-South Transport Corridor and extracting minerals, natural gas and oil from the region, its larger geostrategic calculations and ambitions are obvious. A direct gateway through Pakistan provides the shortest and the most economical access for India to enter Afghanistan and Central Asia. However, due to long-standing mistrust, Islamabad is reluctant to grant India access.

The sea-land route of Chabahar Port is designed to bypass Pakistan. With the new route, some Indian strategists suggest that India can take further advantage of its ties with Iran and Afghanistan and gain new leverage and positioning while reducing Pakistan’s political and economic influence in the region.

Besides bypassing the overland blockage, India also views its investment in Chabahar as a counterweight against Pakistan’s Gwadar Port, a Chinese-funded deep sea port 72 kilometers east of Chabahar. India harbors suspicions – and anxieties - that Gwadar provides China a key post to monitor Indian naval activity in the Persian Gulf and a dual-use base for Chinese ships and submarines. For example, there is popular belief that Gwadar is just another unfriendly stronghold along the so-called “string of pearls” that China is building to choke India’s activities in the Indian Ocean and beyond. These influences perpetuate a “Sino-Indian rivalry” and zero-sum game narrative that leads New Delhi to counter its involvement in Chabahar.

Iran never publicly articulated its opposition to the Sino-Pakistani project in Gwadar. Instead, it had aided the project by providing fresh water and fuel. After all, Tehran’s priority is to boost economic development in its relatively backward eastern regions, while geostrategic rivalries are consigned to take a backseat. In this regard, if India expects too much from Iran, it is bound for disappointment. Chabahar port may benefit all those concerned, including China and Pakistan, as it improves connectivity in region and aligns with China’s “Belt and Road” initiative. However, if the rivalry narrative and zero-sum game thinking continue to prevail in New Delhi, these efforts are likely to be counterproductive.

Although India’s expectations of Chabahar and the sea-land route were high, especially following the lifting of international financial sanctions against Iran, major challenges remained. India may not be able to meet its generous offers and high-sounding rhetoric. As the “Make in India” campaign continued, India’s limited public financial resources are largely prioritized for domestic use. Given India’s perennial financial weakness, it may take New Delhi longer to fulfill these multibillion-dollar overseas commitments.