India Circumvents Chabahar Agreement, Exports Its Goods to Russia Through Georgian Ports

India last week, disregarding the “Chabahar Agreement,” sent dozens of containers containing food items, rice, tea, coffee, and seafood “through Georgian ports” to Russia.

Under the Chabahar Agreement, India is supposed to transfer transit cargo to Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Russia through Chabahar port.

Chabahar, located in Sistan and Baluchestan province in the southeast of the country, is the only maritime gateway for cargo transportation that enjoys certain “economic exemptions” from extensive U.S. sanctions.

IRNA news agency, criticizing India’s “bypassing of Chabahar port,” wrote that “an Indian company holds the management of this port.”

Iranian media had also published reports last year stating that “India is resuming the transfer of wheat aid shipments to Afghanistan via Pakistan,” while it had previously been agreed that “transit cargo and aid wheat from India would be transferred to Afghanistan through Chabahar port.”

Following the Russian military attack on Ukrainian soil on the morning of February 24, 2022, which continues to this day, extensive economic sanctions were imposed by the United States, Canada, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and many other countries against Russia, confronting Moscow with significant challenges in conducting ordinary financial and commercial activities.

In this context, some Iranian government officials and private sector representatives declared that such a situation constitutes “a strategic advantage” for Tehran in the country’s economic crisis conditions. Even Jamshid Nafar, secretary of Iran’s Exporters Confederation, stated on March 9, 2022, that “Russian sanctions are an export opportunity for Iran.”

The Iran Chamber of Commerce, on March 16, 2022, in a report on “various economic dimensions of the Ukraine-Russia war,” announced that “given Iran’s close political relations with Russia,” Tehran has the opportunity to benefit from “emerging opportunities” resulting from this crisis, in line with “developing the country’s export expansion.”

However, with India’s recent action of extensively relocating containers of its export goods through Georgian ports, New Delhi has effectively found an alternative “maritime access route” outside Iran’s maritime and land borders for “sending commercial cargo toward Russia.”

Source: Voice of America