ArmInfo.Armenia considers India's potential and promising role in the the International North-South transport corridor to be quite significant. This was stated by Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in an interview with the Indian "WION", in response to a request to express his attitude towards the "North-South" project and clarify whether Yerevan will join the Chabahar port project.
"We are actively discussing a number of connectivity projects. In this regard, we are interested in advancing our dialogue and cooperation within the framework of INSTC project, Chabahar port, as well as the Persian Gulf - the Black Sea international transport corridor, and we are communicating with other partners on this issue as well. Armenia considers India's potential and prospective role in this corridor to be quite significant. In this sense, we also welcome Indian companies to actively engage in infrastructure projects in Armenia," Mirzoyan summed up.
The North-South transport corridor is designed to provide transport links between the Baltic countries and India through Iran.
The main advantages of this transport corridor over other routes (in particular, over the sea route through the Suez Canal) are: a two-fold or more reduction in the transportation distance, as well as a reduction in the cost of transporting containers compared to the cost of transporting by sea.
The length of the international transport corridor will be 7.2 thousand kilometers. The total length of the North-South highway in Armenia is about 560 km.
It should be noted that the strategic port of Chabahar in the southeast of Iran occupies a special place in the country's strategy "Looking to the East", and can connect India with Central Asia, the Caucasus and the coastal states of the Persian Gulf. The port of Chabahar, as Iran's only ocean port on the Makran coast, is not only important for India's geopolitical interests in Western Asia, but can also play a key role in lifting Afghanistan out of its current geographic impasse and providing India with easy and inexpensive access to its neighbors. In addition, the importance of the port has doubled for India due to China's efforts to increase its influence over India's neighbors. China is trying to limit India's influence in Pakistan by launching the Belt and Road Initiative and investing in the Pakistani port of GwadarThat is why New Delhi has decided to make a large investment in the port of Chabahar. The importance of Chabahar to India is so serious that it has been developing this southern Iranian port for almost three decades. In fact, the development of the Chabahar project goes far beyond increasing trade relations and exports to Iran.
India's first challenge is to compete with the strategic alliance of China and Pakistan and find an alternative to the port of Gwadar. Gwadar is practically a Pakistani "side port" of Iranian Chabahar and is located on the other side of the border in Pakistani Balochistan. The distance between the two ports is 170 km and China plays the same role in Gwadar as India plays in Chabahar. Like Chabahar, Gwadar will become a deepwater port.
Chabahar is also a key point for India in the ambitious North-South International Transport Corridor project. The agreement has been waiting for a miracle since 2000 to pave the way for a new trade and communication line that will connect India to the north through the port of Chabahar.
According to experts, India's exports to Central Asia, the Caucasus and even Russia through the port of Chabahar save about a third of the cost and time of transporting goods to these countries, and this factor may play a role in lowering prices for Indian goods.
