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India downplays US sanctions threat over Iran port deal
Iran and India this week signed a contract to develop and equip the long-stalled Chabahar port in an agreement that would give New Delhi 10 years of access to the facility, at a time when its government is seeking to grow trade in west and central Asia, AFP reported.
“It’s a question of communicating and convincing and getting people to understand that this is actually for everybody’s benefit,” Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar said at a public event in the city of Kolkata on Tuesday evening.
“If you look at the US’s own attitude to Chabahar in the past, the US has been appreciative of the fact that Chabahar has a larger relevance,” he added.
The State Department on Monday warned that Indian companies working on the project risked US sanctions.
“Any entity – anyone – concerned with business deals with Iran, they need to be aware of the potential risks that they’re opening themselves up to,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told a press briefing then.
The deal signed this week will see India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) invest $370 million into “providing strategic equipment” and “developing the transport infrastructure of the port” over the coming decade.
India in 2016 agreed to finance the development of the Iranian port as a trading hub for central Asia.
In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, both countries agreed to speed up the project after a visit by Jaishankar to Tehran.
Chabahar port is on the Indian Ocean about 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of the Pakistani border.