India Proposes Inclusion Of Chabahar Port In INSTC

• 06 Mar 2021

At the 2nd Maritime India Summit 2021, Chabahar Day was observed on 4th March where India proposed to include Chabahar port in the 13-nation International North South Transport Corridor. It also proposed to include Afghanistan and Uzbekistan in INSTC as members.

• Amid signs of a growing partnership between China and Iran, India wants to counter to the Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) of China.

About Maritime India Summit 2021

• The Maritime India Summit 2021 was organised by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways on a virtual platform from March 2 to March 4 via video conferencing. Several countries participated in the event including the CEOs and Ambassadors to boost investment in the Maritime sector in India.
• Denmark was the partner country for the three-day summit.

About INSTC

• The International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.
• The route primarily involves moving freight from India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia via ship, rail and road.
• The objective of the corridor is to increase trade connectivity between major cities such as Mumbai, Moscow, Tehran, Baku, Bandar Abbas, Astrakhan, Bandar Anzali, etc.
• Dry runs of two routes were conducted in 2014, the first was Mumbai to Baku via Bandar Abbas and the second was Mumbai to Astrakhan via Bandar Abbas, Tehran and Bandar Anzali. Despite renewed focus on INSTC by India and Russia, work was again hit by the pandemic.

Member States

• The INSTC project has 13 members - India, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Ukraine, and Syria. And, Bulgaria is an observer member.

Benefits/ Importance of INSTC

• INSTC, an alternative route the Eurasian region will reduce costs and time taken for transfer of goods.
• Further, this will give impetus to the Ashgabat agreement, a multimodal transport agreement among Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, India, Pakistan, and Oman for creating an international transport and transit corridor facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.