Saturday, March 11 2023 15:10

ArmInfo.Armenia has proposed a Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor to connect Indian traders with Russia and Europe. The Economic Times (ET), an Indian business-focused daily newspaper writes.

As the daily reports, the offer was made last week by a visiting  Armenian team comprising senior officials and experts. It came at a  time when Armenia's foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan was also  visiting India.     "The proposed corridor-which will run parallel to the International  North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)-will aim to connect Mumbai  with Bandar Abbas in Iran and then Armenia and onward to Europe or  Russia, bypassing Azerbaijan with whom India has lukewarm ties amid  its close association with Turkey and Pakistan.   Armenia, whose ties with India have witnessed an upswing in recent  years buoyed by defence exports from here, has sought Indian  investments for the corridor in the Armenian territory, sources in  the Armenian government indicated to ET. 

Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, India's trade with  Russia has increased manifold via the INSTC that connects Mumbai with  Russia via Iran and the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan is a key element  under INSTC but has been slow in completing an infrastructure link  under INSTC. Historically, Armenia shares strong political and  business ties with Iran.

"As the new cold war disrupts Russia-West economic and political  relations, any large-scale transit of cargo passing the Russia-Europe  border looks too risky for the international logistic and insurance  companies," Benyamin Poghosyan, founder and chairman of Yerevan,  Armenia-based Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies and  senior research fellow at APRI-Armenia, told ET.

"At the same time, India's need for additional trade routes to reach  Europe circumventing the Suez Canal remain valid. In parallel to the  discussions around INSTC, Iran in 2016 put forward a new  international transport corridor project, Persian Gulf-Black Sea,  which should connect Iran with Europe via the South Caucasus. The  negotiations were paused during the Covid pandemic, but all potential  participants of the project-Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan,  Bulgaria and Greece-expressed their interest in participating."

The Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor fits well into India's plans as  it looks for additional routes to reach Europe, circumventing the  Suez Canal and avoiding the negative impact of Russia-West  confrontation. The corridor itself may connect Iran with Georgia via  either Armenia or Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan have railway and  highway connections with Georgia, and Azerbaijan has a railroad up to  the Azerbaijan- Iran border.

There is a missing link of some 165 km inside Iran (the Rasht-Astara  line) to connect Azerbaijani and Iranian railways. In January 2023,  Russia and Iran agreed to launch the construction with Russian  funding.  Azerbaijan also has a highway connection with Iran,  Poghosyan explained.  Given the extensive experience of Indian  companies in taking part in large-scale infrastructure projects  abroad and India's interest in launching the India-Europe transport  corridor route via Iran and Georgia, Armenia plans to start  negotiations with India to discuss the involvement of Indian funding  and Indian companies into the project. Armenia has witnessed strong  economic growth in the region notwithstanding the war in the region,"  the source notes.