New route to middle asia; through rollercoaster ride of Indo-Iranian ties

Hello, good to see you again. So guys we have already gone through our friendly relations with Saudi and France. But is our foreign policy goal reached? No. Any country having the aim to become a powerful and developed nation, must have a broad vision to foreign policy. As we are wishing to become a superpower, we also aim to establish a healthy relationship with every possible country. Having trade ties with middle west asia and european nations is the greatest opportunity for any nation. As we all know, India shares most of its west border to Pakistan. And thus it was very difficult to open our trade doors to middle asia. But it's history now. We have opened a new trade route by which India can directly access to middle asia. So let's widen our vision and know what exactly matter is!

Before independence, Iran was our beloved neighbour. But since 1947, Pakistan is acting like partition hence, India and Iran are not neighbors anymore. This doesn't mean that we have no bilateral ties. India and Iran relationship was just like a roller coaster, sometimes on very high peak, sometimes on lower. India came into official bilateral ties with Iran in 1950. Lets understand history, Iranian researchers contributed hugely in various sectors including architecture, mathematics, medicine. You will be surprised if I tell you that it was an Iranian who architected one of the most beautiful monuments in the world, the Taj Mahal. Ustad Ahmed Lahori, generally spelled as Ahmed Lahori, was the chief architect of Taj Mahal, built in the era of mugal emperor Shah Jahan. Now coming to the modern era, 35th Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh, admired Gandhiji. He also stated, 'Mahatma Gandhi was a rare human being who with miraculous technique, brought India up to the on which she stands today.' Thus you can predict how roots of our relationships were deepened! But there was a cold war running on its peak. World was getting divided into two parties, one USA and another one USSR. And due to our pro socialist tilt, India was a bit closer to the USSR and that thing the USA didn't like at all. Since India and Iran were going through a healthy partnership, the US interfered in Iran politics and manipulated government. Again Iran fell under the hands of monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Twist in the story is that Shah didn't like PM Nehru's foreign policy. Also disliked India's friendship with Egypt. Henceforth Iran starts standing opposition to India. In 1969, India wanted to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit at Rabat as an observing nation. But Pakistan took strong objection to India's participation. Iran also backed Pakistan and didn't allow India to participate. If you take note, Russia, Thailand were allowed as observer nations, but fact is India had more muslim population than that of Russia and Thailand. Still India didn't get permission. So the India-Iran relationship went down. 

Then Iran started its controversial nuclear power program, and the US imposed strict sanctions on Iran. The US also started to impose sanctions on those nations who are helping Iran or continuing trade. Actually that was an isolation strategy played by the US. And in such a crucial time, looking for a better Indo-Iran relationship, in 2003, India invited President of Iran Mohammad Khatami as chief guest for Indian Republic Day celebration. India's step towards betterment in such a critical situation impacted very positively. Iranian citizens started positive perception towards India. India became the most influential country for Iranian public. All things were going great, and after years a huge setback struck this healthy relationship. In the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution, India voted against Iran. This alleged vote was given by India, under US pressure. Iranian minister gave a statement in the media that Iran never expected this move from India. Again in 2008, when Iranian President came to India, India assured that henceforth India will stand on independent policy and won't vote under US influence. 

So that was all about the progress of our relationship with Iran. Now coming to Indian perspective, India is much willing to have bilateral trade ties with middle asia. But due to Pakistan's geographical location, it was hard to reach there. Another important point was China and Pakistan both are building the China Pakistan Economic Corridor commonly known as CPEC. This CPEC is around 1100 km long and has a budget of $62 billion. This CPEC goes through Gilgit-Baltistan and other areas of Pak Occupied Kashmir, originally owned by India. And ultimately ends in the southern coastal part of Pakistan. China took Gwadar Port of Pakistan on lease and enhanced its functionality so that China would easily access it as per need and get easy access to african nations as well as middle west asia. 

Considering China's increased influence in Indian Ocean, India must find an alternative to conquer this problem. And then the India Iran relationship came in frame again. India and Iran signed MoU and we got a part of Chabahar Port of Iran on lease of 10 years. Chabahar consists of two different ports named Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Behesti. We got Shahid Behesti port. It provided India, right to develop and operate two terminals and 5 berths with multipurpose cargo handling capacity. After this bilateral agreement, it was developed as trilateral as Afghanistan joins it. They sealed an agreement for a Trilateral Transport and Transit Corridor connecting Chabahar with Afghan roads and rail network.

But amid this, we should always consider that the US hasn't waived all sanctions from Iran yet. For that ambitious railway line project, several sites visited by Indian Railway Construction engineers. India could not start working due to sanctions. But later on India was successful to get a waiver from US on Chabahar port construction and Rail line to Afghanistan. So problem resolved isn't it? But actually no. Because several countries are supposed to help in this project, and the US hasn't allowed this. And that would ultimately impact and delay its starting. Due to this extreme delay, Iran was unable to bear those expenses. So Iran dropped India and started construction. And now in the middle of work, Iran seeks help from India for further construction. Iran needs cranes, tracks, switches and signaling equipment from India and India promised to help. Also, these sanctions hit India in Farzad-B gas plant development which was supposed to be developed by India, but due to these sanctions and delay, Iran started its development by help of domestic companies. 

Moving towards conclusion, as I said earlier, India Iran relationship was just like a rollercoaster ride. We have been good friends for the last many decades. But in the last 5-6 years relations have gone on the lower side in the presidential period of Donald Trump. As Trump imposed strict sanctions on Iran. But now in the presidency period of Joe Biden, we are hoping for some relief so that Iran would accelerate its trade ties. Hope India will again start purchasing oil from Iran that actually was suspended due to sanctions. Hope India and Iran relationship would touch new highs in future and develop new ambitious projects like rail projects. 

Long live Indo-Iranian relationship!

Jai Hind!

 - Aditya More

References-

1) The Diplomat- 

https://thediplomat.com/tag/india-iran-relations/

2) The Ministry of External Affairs

3) The Print-

https://theprint.in/diplomacy/oil-chabahar-violence-against-muslims-why-india-iran-ties-are-going-into-free-fall/376836/

4) National Herald-

https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/india-iran-relations-are-not-at-all-rosy

5) The International Atomic Energy Agency-

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/iran/iaea-and-iran-iaea-reports

6) The Hindu- India has accelerated work on Chabahar Port, likely to be declared operational by May: CRS

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/india-has-accelerated-work-on-chabahar-port-likely-to-be-declared-operational-by-may-crs/article34277332.ece

7) The Quint- India Needs to Focus on West Asia, Site of Another ‘Great Game’

https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/india-west-asia-another-great-game-china-iran-chabahar-indo-pacific-quad-la-perouse