Chabahar on headway: Pakistan’s envy

Keeping hopes up for India's plans to develop the Chabahar port in Iran, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari conveyed that it would be operational by 2018. Gadkari, who is currently visiting Tehran, was also hopeful about getting approvals from the Iranian government.

The signing of Chabahar agreement was not only an important development in the trilateral Afghanistan-India-Iran relations but transformed the geopolitical dimensions of the region. As Robert D. Kaplan mentioned in his influential essay Center Stage for the 21st Century: Power Plays in the Indian Ocean, the Indian Ocean is becoming an epicenter of the global power struggle and most importantly, the rivalry between the two Asian power—China and India. That is where the strategic importance of Gwadar and Chabahar lies respectively for both sides.

On 23rd May 2016, in a strategic mission to reach out to the regions of West and Central Asia, India reached a trilateral agreement with Iran and Afghanistan known as the Chabahar Agreement. Chabahar is a city in the Southeastern Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province near the Gulf of Oman. With this agreement India will invest US$500 million to develop a strategically important Chabahar port, approximately 72-km away from Pakistan’s Gwadar port—another equally important port constructed by China in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. The milestone project was initiated with an ambition to produce a big-scale geopolitical impact for both India and the region. For India, the project is vital for its geo-strategic calculations to strengthen its presence in both Central and West Asia.

The proposal to develop the Chabahar port was first conceptualised in 2003 at the Delhi Declaration, however the proposal failed to make significant progress. The West-imposed sanctions against Iran over its clandestine nuclear programme have greatly affected the initiative. In the meantime, India also holds negotiations with Afghanistan on the issue of Chabahar, because the development of Chabahar port in Iran is also vital for India-Afghanistan relations. India has already constructed a 220km-long Zaranj-Delaram highway also known as ‘Route 606’ in 2009, linking Afghanistan’s ‘Garland Highway’ which is connected to the Chabahar through the existing Iranian roads.

Pakistan’s concern

Some time ago a conference organized in Pakistan to discuss the effect of Chabahar project on Pakistan’s postion.  Some of its key speakers show it as a grave danger to Pakistan. Two former defence secretaries insist the trade route which is being established by Iran, India and Afghanistan, linking Chabahar Port with Afghanistan, is a security threat.

Former defence secretary retired Lt-Gen Asif Yasin Malik said: “The alliance between India, Afghanistan and Iran is a security threat to Pakistan” and added that he feared that Pakistan is going into isolation. Malik further said “In view of the regional and global environment, I see Pakistan falling into an abyss of isolation primarily because of its own mistakes and partly due to the hostile policies of other states.”

Retired Lt-Gen Nadeem Lodhi said the existence of such a “formidable bloc” in the neighbourhood had “ominous and far reaching implications” for Pakistan. He feared the three-nation bloc will affect Pakistan’s plans for regional economic integration, restoration of internal peace and maintenance of peaceful borders. It will also affect CPEC timelines, he added.

“We need to break out of this encircling move with help from friends... diplomatic manoeuvres and by forging a strong deterrence,” he said, adding that of the three countries, Iran is most likely to pay heed to Pakistani concerns. He suggested Pakistan use China’s influence for fixing problems. “Iran must not be further alienated and its interests in CPEC should be developed.”