Iran has excluded India from India's largest foreign trade project, the "Chabahar Port" project. Excluding India from the Chabahar project has become a huge opportunity for China.
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China has taken the opportunity as usual. China will now easily have the opportunity to involve itself in the dirty politics of the Middle East.
China's huge investment and presence in Iran has qualified it to be a new player in the Middle East.
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But with Iran pulling India out of the project, along with huge trade losses, India became isolated in Asia. At the same time, India had no choice but to counter the growing foreign trade between China and Pakistan.
Many changes are taking place in regional politics through this decision of Iran. Iran's decision is seen as a major setback in India's foreign policy. Although the significance of the incident is much more.
The depth and breadth of Iran's decision are enormous. This decision will be reflected in the political ups and downs of Afghanistan. Kabul is particularly involved with the Chabahar project. This decision by Iran has caused China-Pakistan to rejoice.
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Chabahar was being considered as an alternative to the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (CPEC) and China's deep-sea port construction project in Pakistan. Indian commentators have called the latest incident a "big loss". Although the decision belongs to Iran, it seems that there is a deep connection between the Sino-Indian rivalry in their declaration.
Chabahar project and India
Chabahar is an important seaport in southern Iran. It is located 60-70 km from the port of Gwadar in Pakistan. China is heavily involved in the development of the deep seaport of Gwadar. India joins the Chabahar-investment initiative to reduce Afghanistan's dependence on Pakistani ports and increase its influence in Central Asia by expanding trade with Afghanistan and Iran.
The agreement was reached during the Indian Prime Minister's visit to Iran in 2016. Part of the project was to lay a 600-kilometer railway line from Chabahar to Zahedan. That railway is supposed to be connected to Iran's national rail network. In addition to the construction of two new terminals at the port, India was particularly involved in the railway project.
Although it is a joint Iran-India-Afghanistan project, the main investment is to be made by India. It is a 1.6 billion project. Indian Railway Construction Limited (IRCON) is supposed to do this. India Ports Global Limited is also in Chabahar. These organizations have to wrap up their work a lot now.
However, India's involvement in the development of this Iranian port was a significant step forward in the geopolitical expansion of New Delhi. This reduced the importance and dependence of Pakistan on the Afghans. The last head of the railway project is Zahedan near the Afghan border.
Apart from reducing Pakistan's dependence on portless Afghanistan, India would also benefit from the project by shipping goods from Mumbai to Kabul and Central Asia via Mumbai. This route could halve the cost and time of transporting Indian goods to Central Asia. The port also facilitated communication between New Delhi and southern Iran and Afghanistan.
US interest
Although the United States has imposed sanctions on many foreign companies in trade with Iran. Washington was saying, .... Chabahar is being kept out of the blockade in the interest of Afghanistan. It may be due to the desire to make Pakistan's Gadar port unimportant. Now it seems that the US cooperation in Chabahar is not working for India in the end.
In return for that huge Chinese investment, Iran has promised to supply cheap fuel oil to Beijing for 25 years. The US blockade on Iran will also be quite ineffective. At the same time, banning Chinese apps, including TickTock, and dragging the Indian border conflict into the economic arena, and imposing restrictions on Chinese investment in India, is all that matters.
This incident is also surprising from the Iranian side. However, they are saying that they will complete the work of laying the Chabahar-Zahidan railway in their way. They blamed India for the delay in paying for the cancellation of the agreement. Although the decision is dramatic, they have decided to jeopardize relations with India with economic and geopolitical considerations in mind.
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The latest decision also underscores the depth of Tehran's anger over India's decision to suspend oil imports from Iran under US pressure. There are also indications from Iran that they are interested in communication between the Chinese ports of Gwadar and Chabahar, built with Chinese assistance. If something like this happens, it will be a step forward in China-Pakistan-Iran freight transport and maritime dominance in the sea and Central Asia.
