KABUL - Afghanistan has been invited for the second India-Uzbekistan-Iran trilateral meeting on the use of Chabahar Port.
Earlier this month, the first meeting was attended by the deputy ministers of the three countries.
The next meeting will be hosted by India with the dates in the process of finalization, DNA India reported.
Spokesman of Indian Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Shrivastava said, "Afghanistan, as a major stakeholder, will be invited for the meeting."
Chabahar has been a key connectivity project by India toward its west and has been providing connectivity via Iran to Afghanistan and beyond. India built the Shahid Beheshti Port at Chabahar as part of the India-Iran-Afghanistan 2016 agreement.
In December 2018, an Indian company, India Ports Global Limited, took over the port operations and as of August 2020, the port has handled 1.2 million tons of cargo and 82,000 containers. In fact, India used the port to send 75,000 tons of wheat to Afghanistan as part of the humanitarian aid amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The proposal for the trilateral meeting was put across by Uzbekistan, which is a landlocked country and keen on several connectivity projects. And it is just not Uzbekistan, but other Central Asian countries have also shown interest in using the port, built with the help of New Delhi.
The development is seen as an important shot in the arm for India's connectivity plans in its west, where Pakistan has played an obstructionist role. India sees Chabahar Port as a fulcrum of connectivity in the region and even the US exempted the project from Iran sanctions since it not only provided humanitarian supplies to Afghanistan but also economic alternatives. (Financial Tribune)