KABUL (TCA) — Afghanistan’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, has called on Indian businesses to invest in his war-torn country — including development of a proposed trade corridor through Afghanistan that links Iran with India and Central Asia, RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan reported.
Abdullah told a meeting of top industry groups in New Delhi on February 3 that the “mutual goodwill that exists” between the peoples of Afghanistan and India “must translate into a mutually beneficial relationship.”
Abdullah said he hopes a proposed Afghanistan-Iran-India transit agreement that is centered around the strategic Iranian port of Chabahar would “happen in [the] near future.”
Abdullah said Iran’s Chabahar port could “act as a gateway towards opening new energy and trade routes not only in Afghanistan but in Central Asia as well.”
Little has been done on the project since May 2015, when India signed a multimillion-dollar memorandum of understanding with Iran to develop the port.
Based on a preliminary agreement signed between the two countries last May, India is to invest $85 million for the construction of two berths at Chabahar port which is located in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-and-Baluchestan province, Tasnim News Agency reported.
Chabahar is the closest and best access point of Iran to the Indian Ocean and Iran has devised serious plans to turn it into a transit hub for immediate access to markets in the northern part of the Indian Ocean and Central Asia.
