Tehran: The Iranian government has excluded India from the Chabahar rail project.
India and Iran signed an agreement in 2016 to build a railway line from the port of Chabahar to Zahedan along the Afghan border.
Four years later, the Iranian government, noticing the continued delays in funding and launching the project, excluded India from the project and has now decided to build the project itself.
India dropped from Chahbar Port deal. This is the diplomacy of the Modi Govt that won laurels even without getting the work done, China worked quietly but gave them a better deal. Big loss for India. But you can’t ask questions!https://t.co/mrb6rhPhWg
— Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) July 14, 2020
The development comes as China finalizes a 25-year, سالہ 400 billion strategic partnership agreement with Iran.
India feared US sanctions, which prevented it from working despite the agreement in Chabahar. Iran will now start work on the project on its own without India’s financial support and Chabahar will be developed at a light pace.
The opposition Congress party in India has termed the expulsion as a major failure of India and a diplomatic defeat for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Iranian Minister of Transport Mohammad Islami has inaugurated a project to lay a railway track, which will be completed in March 2022.
China already has a railroad to Iran, with Mashhad connected to Chabahar by rail. This means that China can now use the railway from Kashgar to Chabahar and then further by sea.
The United States had exempted the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project from sanctions, yet India continued to waste time and delay tactics on the project, but surprisingly, it took Iran a long time to get rid of India.
It was the only major project in Iran to be built with India’s participation. India wanted the project to affect Pakistan’s economy but gave in to fear of US sanctions.
China has recently finalized a 25-year, سالہ 400 billion strategic partnership agreement with Iran, under which Beijing will help build communications, banking, industry, railways and ports in Iran. In return, Iran will supply cheap oil to China for 25 years.