November 29 2013
Afghanistan said Saturday it is keen to sign a trilateral agreement with India and Iran on the use of Iran’s Chabahar port.
Afghan Ambassador to India Shaida M. Abdali, addressing a talk at the Press Club of India, said his country had just exported 15 containers of dry fruit through Chabahar port. “We are trying to upgrade capacity of the port and railway line,” he said.
India and Afghanistan have both been eager for many years in seeing Chabahar upgraded from a backwater port to a modern harbor that could be used to move India goods to land-locked Afghanistan. Both want that to reduce Afghanistan’s dependence on Pakistan.
Iran has endorsed the plan to upgrade Chabahar and its land connections with the Afghan border. But Iran has done little in fulfillment.
India recently offered to take over the development of Chabahar. But Iran has not jumped at that proposal and some suspect the Islamic Republic prefers to see Afghanistan kept isolated.
Ambassador Abdali said Indian business and investment were always “most welcome” in Afghanistan and would get the red carpet treatment. “We want joint ventures with India…. There will be some risks involved, but without risks one cannot get anything,” he said.
Discussing development, he said that in a country of 30 million people there are now 20 million telephone users.