TEHRAN (Iran News) – Head of Iran-Uzbekistan Joint Chamber of Commerce says the process for Uzbekistan’s signing Chabahar agreement is in the final stage and will be soon finalized.
Speaking to ILNA, Mousa Aqaee said recently Uzbek officials paid a visit to Chabahar Port, adding that joining of Uzbekistan to Chabahar Port is a win-win one economically for both sides.
He then pointed to the latest development in trade ties between Iran and Uzbekistan and said Iran’s exports to Uzbekistan in nine months this year have been around $350m and at the same time its imports have been around $150m and on the whole Iran and Uzbekistan enjoy good interactions.
He then added that Iran-Uzbekistan Joint Chamber of Commerce has been launched one month ago and it tries to provide the grounds for expansion of trade ties between the two countries more than the current level.
Aqaee added that Iran and Uzbekistan have great potentials for broadening their economic cooperation, adding that for example he can point to some fields for cooperation like technical and engineering services, construction materials, agriculture, transportation and petrochemicals. He went on to say that to operationalize it, both countries need to provide some grounds, adding that they have problem in the rail and air transportation and if Iran and Uzbekistan prepare these grounds, their bilateral trade will grow considerably and it may even reach one billion dollars.
On the latest development on Uzbekistan’s joining to Chabahar Agreement, he said that Uzbekistan’s joining to this agreement is good economically and if they invest in the projects it will be a win-win deal.
He went on to say that it will be also to the benefit of the other Central Asian countries and Iran should pave this ground for Uzbekistan to invest. He added that the agreement is on the verge of being finalized but the details have not been revealed yet, Iran News Daily reports.
Tribune India writes that India had launched 3rd shippin lines between Chabahar and the Indian ports of Mumbai and Mundra in 2017. In January 2019, the second direct shipping route was launched. It passes through Mumbai, Mundra, Kandla, Chabahar and finally Bandar Abbas in southern Iran. India is using these shipping routes to transit goods to Afghanistan and Persian Gulf nations as well as the countries in Central Asia, the Iranian media reported. Through Chabahar port, India can bypass Pakistan and transport goods to Afghanistan and Central Asia, while Afghanistan can get linked to India via sea.
Iran has awarded India the project for installing and operating modern loading and unloading equipment, including mobile harbour cranes in Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar.
The first-ever India-Iran-Uzbekistan trilateral was held in December 2021 to develop communication routes with Central Asian countries.
India welcomes the interest of Central Asian countries to utilise the services of Shahid Beheshti Terminal at Chabahar Port for facilitating trade between both sides as well as other external markets, Republic World reports. During the first India-Central Asia Summit held virtually last month between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan, the leaders agreed that initiatives on connectivity should be based on the principles of transparency, respect for sovereignty, and territorial integrity of all nations.
The leaders who attended the summit hailed India’s proposal of establishing a joint working group Chabahar Port to address the issues with free movement of goods and services among India and Central Asian countries. Apart from supporting India’s proposal to use Chabahar Port to facilitate trade, the participating leaders also noted Turkmenistan’s proposal to include the Turkmenbashi Port within the framework of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
According to the Delhi Declaration published by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of the first India-Central Asia Summit, “The Indian side welcomed the interest of Central Asian countries to utilise the services of Shahid Beheshti Terminal at Chabahar Port for facilitating their trade with India and other external markets. The Sides agreed to continue engagement for further developing the transit and transport potential of their countries, improving the logistics network of the region and promoting joint initiatives to create regional and international transport corridors.”