Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari represented India at the inauguration of the second tenure of Hassan Rouhani as the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran on 5 August 2017.
During his two-day visit on 5-6 August 2017, Shri Gadkari held talks with President Rouhani, called on the First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri and held detailed exchange of views with the Minister of Roads and Urban Development of Iran Abbas Akhoundi.
During the meeting between Akhoundi and his Indian counterpart, the Iranian side said the two countries have reached an agreement on $150 million finance to be provided by India for the development of Chabahar Port, as well as an agreement on the country’s $85 million worth of investment in Chabahar.
Akhoundi stressed that financial agreements on the two projects have been signed and there is no particular problem for their implementation.
According to Akhoundi, the two sides also discussed the financing of Chabahar-Zahedan railway, with the Indian side agreeing to propose its form of participation in the project by next month.
Akhoundi also noted Iran-Russia’s agreements on activating the Iranian corridor toward Russia through Azerbaijan Republic, and from Russia toward eastern European countries such as Estonia and Lithuania.
“For increasing the competitive advantage of Iran's transit corridors to the north, we have agreed on a 50 per cent discount on Indian goods,” said Akhoudni, adding “of course, this is not a one-way discount, but a multilateral commitment between Iran, the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia to better promote this corridor among other competing corridors.”
The Indian minister, for his part, stressed that India would stay committed to all of its agreements with Iran in the face of any unilateral sanctions imposed by the US on the Islamic Republic.
The strategic port of Chabahar, located off Iran's south eastern coast, will provide India a sea-land access route to Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. The pact to develop the Chabahar Port had been signed between Iran and India during Nitin Gadkari’s visit to Tehran in May 2015.
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