India and Iran on Sunday agreed to accelerate work on the Chabahar port, which is jointly being developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan, the Times of India reported.
The decision was made after India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif in Tehran.
Chabahar is located on the Indian Ocean in the Sistan and Baluchestan province and will open up trade between the three nations and Central Asia.
“Just concluded a very productive India-Iran Joint Commission Meeting with my co-chair FM Zarif,” Jaishankar tweeted after the meeting. “Reviewed the entire gamut of our cooperation. Agreed on accelerating our Chabahar project,” he said.
The meeting comes after the US provided a rare exemption from Iran-focused sanctions to India for the Chabahar port in Iran. Washington said it recognized that the strategic project was a lifeline for war-torn Afghanistan to get humanitarian supplies from India, according to a Times of India report.
In May 2016, India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a pact that included the establishment of a transit and transport corridor among the three countries using Chabahar port as one regional hub.
