According to the Indian external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam BagchiIndia, India has proposed to include the port in the framework of the International North-South Transport Corridor and has welcomed the formation of the India-Uzbekistan-Iran-Afghanistan quadrilateral working group on the joint use of Chabahar port. The meeting is likely to take place in the later half of this year, reported Hindustan Times.
Since December 2018, when India began operations at Shahid Beheshti terminal at Chabahar port, the facility has handled 134 vessels, 14,258 TEUs of containers, and more than 2.08 million tonnes of bulk and general cargo.
The cargo included humanitarian supplies such as wheat sent by India to Afghanistan during the Covid-19 pandemic.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar had highlighted the practical steps taken by India since 2016 to operationalize Chabahar port at a meeting on regional connectivity hosted in Tashkent by the Uzbekistan government on July 16.
In his speech at the event, Jaishankar said Chabahar port provides secure, viable, and unhindered access to the sea for Central Asian countries. “Its efficacy is now clearly proven,” he added.
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
