The director of port affairs of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) Jalil Eslami announced the visit of Indian officials to Tehran in the next two weeks with the aim of resolving and finalizing the country's agreement on the Chabahar port and said: So far, 25% of the tripartite agreement with India has been implemented in Chabahar port.
Speaking in a press conference, Eslami added the performance of Chabahar port has more than doubled in the last 2 years and the trade at Chabahar port has increased.
According to the Iranian PMO official, "In the implementation of the cooperation agreement between Iran and India, the supply of equipment, including the supply of 6 large cranes and their arrival at Shahid Beheshti port in Chabahar, has been carried out."
He added that there is no problem with installing and operationalizing the equipment, and it was only conditioned on the operationalization of the long-term contract with the Indians."
"In recent months, the testing of these equipment has been carried out, and following negotiations with India, the use of these equipments is outside the clause of the long-term contract and it is possible to use them.
Islami emphasized, "We are negotiating with India to cooperate in the supply of equipment through the Chabahar Agreement."
According to the PMO official, "the contract with the Indians has not been officially implemented; But it is not like that the work has not been done, at the same time, in the short-term cooperation, the presence of the Indian company in Chabahar happened, about 25% of this contract was completed, in addition to the fact that the Indian operator was directly present in Chabahar port for two periods of 18 months."
He went on to say that "With the new approach of the 13th government [under President Ebrahim Raeisi] in order to maintain and develop the cooperation between Iran and India, the meeting to finalize the contract with India will be held in Tehran soon."
"Recently, the issues of the contract were discussed in joint meetings and in the next two weeks, officials from India will come to Tehran to finalize and settle the Chabahar agreement," he further asserted.
According to Eslami, "Iran has conveyed its opinions to India in the field of traffic volume (coming and going of the ships) and the commitment of both sides, and I hope we can reach a good agreement in the upcoming meeting."
He concluded, "There are different stages for the development of Chabahar and at the same time there is no restriction on investment negotiations for the entry of other countries in line with the realization of the Chabahar development plan. Iran uses every capacity to develop Chabahar and we will hesitate in that regard.
MNA/IRN84901149