Armenia, Iran, India trade corridor faces setback Trilateral Meeting Cancelled

A planned trilateral meeting involving Armenia, Iran, and India to establish a new trade route did not take place as scheduled in September.

The Armenian Ministry of Economy confirmed the cancellation in response to an inquiry from Armenian media. 

"The meeting did not occur due to well-known events in Iran," the ministry stated.

Despite this setback, Armenia continues preliminary discussions to create a multimodal high-speed trade route. However, the exact timeline for its launch remains uncertain. The role of Armenia in managing Iran's Chabahar port also remains ambiguous.

"The format of Armenia's participation in the port is still under discussion," the ministry added.

Thus, Chabahar Port is a seaport located in Chabahar, in the southeast of Iran on the Gulf of Oman. It is Iran's only deep-water port and comprises two separate ports, Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti, each equipped with five berths. The port lies approximately 170 kilometres west of the Pakistani port of Gwadar.

The idea to develop the port was first proposed in 1973 by the last Shah of Iran, though its construction was postponed following the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The first phase of the port was inaugurated in 1983 during the Iran–Iraq War as Iran began to shift its seaborne trade eastwards towards the Pakistani border, reducing dependence on Persian Gulf ports vulnerable to Iraqi airstrikes.

India and Iran first agreed in 2003 to further develop Shahid Beheshti Port, although progress was delayed due to international sanctions against Iran. As of 2016, the port has ten berths. In May 2016, India and Iran signed a bilateral agreement under which India would refurbish one of the berths at Shahid Beheshti and reconstruct a 600-metre-long container-handling facility at the port.

By Aghakazim Guliyev