Just hours after India agreed to a 10-year contract to manage the Chabahar port in Iran, the US issued a warning about possible penalties against any nation thinking about doing business with that nation.
The United States of America seems to have forgotten that it decided twice, in 2018 and 2019, to publicly inform India that the modernization of Chabahar Port would not be subject to sanctions as it was a vital entry point for India to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
At a press conference, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said, “Any entity, anyone considering business deals with Iran — they need to be aware of the potential risks that they are opening themselves up to and the potential risk of sanctions.”
Regarding the 10-year agreement between two Indian and Iranian PSUs to manage the Chabahar port, he was asked to comment. In addition to the $120 million that the Indian PSU, India Port Global Limited (IPGL), has agreed to spend, a $250 million line of credit is promised in a letter from External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar that visiting Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal brought to Tehran.
While Jaishankar believed the agreement “will clear the pathway for bigger investments to be made in the port,” Sonowal had referred to it as a “historic moment in India-Iran ties.”
According to sources here, the US does not seem to see India’s efforts at Chabahar as serving exclusively Afghanistan, particularly in light of the establishment of the Iran-India-Uzbekistan trilateral to provide a pathway from the Indian Ocean to Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asian nations.
India has previously requested that nations participating in the Bandar Abbas port-based International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) include the Chabahar route in its future development plans.
Just after the US told India that the port would not be subject to sanctions, India assumed control of the port’s operations at the end of 2018. This was further emphasized during the Indo-US two-plus-two meeting a year later when the US side said that it would waive the modernization of Chabahar Port on the grounds that it was a crucial entry point for India’s shipment of assistance to Afghanistan.
The other entry point into landlocked Afghanistan is via Pakistan, which forbids India from using it as a transit country.