Jaishankar for Chabahar Port in North-South Transport Corridor

Stressing on the need for enhanced connectivity, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday proposed that the strategic Chabahar Port in Iran be included in the North-South Transport Corridor that has the potential to bridge connectivity barriers, as he agreed on a roadmap for future course of cooperation and exchanges during bilateral talks with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan.

Jaishankar was speaking at a joint press meet with Armenian Foreign Minister Mirzoyan following their meeting in Yerevan.

Jaishankar on Tuesday arrived in Armenia on the last leg of his 3-nation tour to Central Asia to further expand bilateral ties and discuss key regional issues including the developments in

Afghanistan. It is the firstever visit by an External Affairs Minister to Armenia.

“Both India and Armenia are members of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which has the potential to bridge the connectivity barrier. So Minister Mirzoyan and I discussed the interest which Armenia has shown in utilisation of the Chabahar Port in Iran and being developed by India,” Jaishankar said in his remarks.

“We also proposed the Chabahar Port be included in the International NorthSouth Transport Corridor; we welcome the use of the Chabahar Port and any other initiative that will encourage regional connectivity,” he said.

About India’s interest in developing the Chabahar Port, Jaishankar said, “We are interested because if we develop more ports in Iran and then connectivity from those ports to northwards of Iran, it opens up more trade routes which are land-based, which are more efficient than the sea-based routes.

“So the key today to economic progress is to be more competitive in terms of movement of goods and that is why this is important and, at least, I mentioned Chabahar to the minister because it is a port in Iran which India is developing and for us it opens up a pathway at least one side to the Caucasus (intersection of Europe and Asia), opens up a different pathway to Central Asia and it is an initiative that we are working with the Russians very closely.”