Chabahar Port and India-Iran Relations

Iran shouting trust me not or just a publicity gimmick ?

Iran says it has offered Pakistan and China participation in India's Chabahar project - Times of India

NEW DELHI: In what may come as a shock to India, Iran said yesterday it offered Pakistan and China participation in the Chabahar project, a port that is being built by India for the express purpose of bypassing Pakistan.

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported today that Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif yesterday invited Pakistan to participate in Chabahar seaport project + and in the development of its link with the Gwadar Port "as he sought to allay concerns here (in Pakistan) over Indian involvement in the Iranian port."

“We offered to participate in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). We have also offered Pakistan and China to participate in Chabahar,” said Zarif, who is on a three-day visit to Pakistan, while delivering a lecture at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, said Dawn.
 
Well its not like India owns Chabahar but just for fun we should do it anyway
Jokes apart Iranians are very transnational in nature and ever since sanctions were lifter showed us middle fingers on many occasions. We are also to be blamed for slow approach to Chabahar project due to fear of american sanctions. We are still not going full throttle on this project and Iranians keep on sending us indirect messages like this. I doubt if we are going to have anything substantial with them in coming days. It would start and end with Chabahar.
 
Jokes apart Iranians are very transnational in nature and ever since sanctions were lifter showed us middle fingers on many occasions. We are also to be blamed for slow approach to Chabahar project due to fear of american sanctions. We are still not going full throttle on this project and Iranians keep on sending us indirect messages like this. I doubt if we are going to have anything substantial with them in coming days. It would start and end with Chabahar.

In long run, every oil producing country including Iran will have little leverage on India. If Iran is trying to act over smart, it will pay the price during next round of sanctions. Trump is still there ;).
 
India to offer $3-4 billion development plan for giant Iran gas field: sources

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is set to offer a $3-4 billion development plan for the Farzad B gas field to Iran next week after Tehran reduced the scope of the project, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Relations between the two countries, which have long held deep trade ties, were strained last year after Iran sought other investors for the field and media reports suggested Tehran would award it to Russia’s Gazprom.

In retaliation, India directed its state refiners to cut oil imports from Iran.

At a meeting in New Delhi in February, Iran reduced the scope of the development plan for the Farzad B field and asked India to submit a revised proposal, said the two sources, who did not wish to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

New Delhi and Tehran have been trying to narrow differences over Farzad B development rights since its discovery by Indian firms led by ONGC Videsh, the foreign investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corp, in 2008.

Indian companies were hoping to get rights to develop the asset as the South Asian nation was one of the handful of nations that continued to deal with Iran during years of sanctions against the country over its nuclear programme.

The new terms confine Indian companies to just production of gas and development of the field, said the two sources.

Although a formal offer is yet to be made, sources said, the new bid would be between $3 billion and $4 billion and would not include gas processing and development of downstream projects.

“As the negotiations are still ongoing, we would not like to comment at this stage,” ONGC Videsh said in response to a Reuters’ email seeking comments.

At the request of Iran, Indian companies last year submitted a $11-billion development proposal that covered the development of upstream activities and downstream infrastructure.

The field is estimated to hold 22 trillion cubic feet (tcf)of reserves, of which 16 tcf are deemed recoverable.

India and Iran will discuss the revised development plan for the field next week, during Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh’s visit to New Delhi.

To strengthen its ties with India, Iran has offered a higher freight discount on oil sales, besides agreeing to consider India’s demand for a stake in a producing field, sources told Reuters last month.

In return, India has agreed to boost oil imports from Iran, India’s oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said last month after a meeting with Zanganeh in Delhi.
 
I think, you meant Oman.

Edit - Did not know about this security pact. Interesting and as usual dumb move by the UPA government.

Qatar dominates our gas market completely. We can't have them fall into trouble.

Everybody talks about oil suppliers like the Saudis and Iraqis, but people forget that if our gas supplies stop, we can no longer cook food. Europe is in the same problem vis-a-vis Russia. Pipelines from Iran and Russia will help alleviate the problem, but we are going to depend a lot on Qatar for security needs.

To India, Qatar is the most important country in the Middle East.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Aditya
Qatar dominates our gas market completely. We can't have them fall into trouble.

Everybody talks about oil suppliers like the Saudis and Iraqis, but people forget that if our gas supplies stop, we can no longer cook food. Europe is in the same problem vis-a-vis Russia. Pipelines from Iran and Russia will help alleviate the problem, but we are going to depend a lot on Qatar for security needs.

To India, Qatar is the most important country in the Middle East.
You are getting confused. Most people use LPG for cooking, not CNG. LPG is a byproduct of petroleum refining process.
 
You are getting confused. Most people use LPG for cooking, not CNG. LPG is a byproduct of petroleum refining process.

Yeah, you're right, about today. But I was talking about piped gas since the govt's decided to switch from LPG to CNG or PNG over the next few years in all major cities. So this will affect us in the mid to long term.

Right now, our gas imports are only 20% of our needs. But that's going to rise a lot over the next 10 years. Especially with the govt push to reduce or even eliminate LPG from the market.

India opens biggest city gas licensing round
 
  • Informative
Reactions: _Anonymous_
Yeah, you're right, about today. But I was talking about piped gas since the govt's decided to switch from LPG to CNG or PNG over the next few years in all major cities. So this will affect us in the mid to long term.

Right now, our gas imports are only 20% of our needs. But that's going to rise a lot over the next 10 years. Especially with the govt push to reduce or even eliminate LPG from the market.

India opens biggest city gas licensing round
Please check the closing paragraphs of the article you've quoted . The response is tepid . The economics doesn't support the replacement of LPG with CNG or PNG for household usage .
 
Qatar dominates our gas market completely. We can't have them fall into trouble.

Everybody talks about oil suppliers like the Saudis and Iraqis, but people forget that if our gas supplies stop, we can no longer cook food. Europe is in the same problem vis-a-vis Russia. Pipelines from Iran and Russia will help alleviate the problem, but we are going to depend a lot on Qatar for security needs.

To India, Qatar is the most important country in the Middle East.
India will not / cannot put all its eggs in one basket . That's the reason why we're equidistant in our relationships with all the Gulf States . That's the bottom line .
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Bali78
Please check the closing paragraphs of the article you've quoted . The response is tepid . The economics doesn't support the replacement of LPG with CNG or PNG for household usage .

Bureaucratic hurdles in those cities would have affected the bidding, but we know what's in store for the near future.

What's important is the big cities have all been taken already. The project has started recently after all. And you can expect 30% of the population to be covered by it, that's basically our entire urban population.

India will not / cannot put all its eggs in one basket . That's the reason why we're equidistant in our relationships with all the Gulf States . That's the bottom line .

It depends. Our major supplier is Qatar right now. We want pipelines from Iran and Russia eventually. But there is a chance all three countries will share one single pipeline. You blow it up, our supply ends. There's Australia, but that will be via ships.

Basically, there are more oil suppliers and less gas suppliers in our geographical region, and among gas suppliers Qatar holds I think 80% of the Indian market.

One silver lining is that we have massive gas reserves of our own, enough to rival other top suppliers.
 
Iran's Foreign Minister meets Sushma tomorrow, expected to seek India's support to salvage N-deal
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will hold extensive talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tomorrow during which he is expected to seek India's support for Iran's nuclear deal with six world powers in the wake of Washington's withdrawal from it. Zarif's day-long visit here is part of Tehran's efforts to reach out to major world powers after the US pulled out from the landmark nuclear deal of 2015 under which Tehran had agreed to stop its sensitive nuclear activities in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

The issue is expected to be discussed extensively in the talks between Swaraj and Zarif, officials said.
The Chabahar port project is also likely to figure in the meeting.

Iran is India's third largest oil supplier and there were apprehensions about possible impact of the US decision on India's oil import. However, the officials said the US decision to reinstate financial sanctions on Iran would not impact India's oil imports as long as European countries did not follow suit.

The Iranian Foreign Minister visited China, Russia and some European countries in the last three weeks after President Donald Trump announced Washington's withdrawal from the deal which was signed by the Obama administration.

The issue is understood to have figured during an "informal summit" between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian city of Sochi last week. China, Russia and several European nations have been trying to salvage the deal. Iran had struck the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) with the US, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany after years of negotiations.

In its reaction to Trump's decision, India had said all the parties concerned should engage constructively to resolve the issue peacefully and that Iran's right to peaceful use of nuclear energy must be ensured. The US President's decision to abandon the agreement has shocked the world, with America's closest allies such as France, Germany and the UK expressing concern over it.

Zarif is scheduled to return tomorrow night. Indo-Iran ties have been on a upswing in the last three years. Prime Minister Modi visited Tehran in May 2016 with an aim to craft a strategic relationship with Iran and expand India's ties with West Asia. During the visit, India and Iran signed nearly a dozen pacts, centrepiece of which was an agreement on development of Chabahar port.

Later, India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a trilateral pact providing for transport of goods among the three countries through the port. In February, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited India during which both sides agreed to further expand their cooperation in a number of key sectors. During Rouhani's visit, both sides signed nine agreements including one on handing over Chabahar port's operation to India for 18 months.

India and Iran have robust economic and commercial ties covering many sectors though it has traditionally been dominated by the import of Iranian crude oil by India. According to the External Affairs Ministry, India-Iran bilateral trade during the 2016-17 fiscal was USD 12.89 billion. India imported USD 10.5 billion worth of goods, mainly crude oil, and exported commodities worth USD 2.4 billion.
Iran's Foreign Minister meets Sushma tomorrow, expected to seek India's support to salvage N-deal
 
India, Uzbekistan to route their trade though Chabahar

India and Uzbekistan are set to route their trade through the Iranian port of Chabahar as part of New Delhi’s growing engagement with resource-rich Central Asia.

Briefing the media on Saturday, Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said that during talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the sidelines of the summit of the eight-nation Shanghai cooperation Organisation (SCO), the two leaders hoped to supplement their connectivity through the Chabahar port with the establishment of industrial parks and an investment zone in Uzbekistan.

Uzbek Deputy PM coming to India
Mr. Gokhale said that Uzbekistan’s Deputy Prime Minister would be visiting New Delhi shortly to work out details and prepare for Mr. Mirziyoyev’s visit to India later this year.

India, Iran and Afghanistan have partnered the establishment of the International Transport and Transit Corridor, which can connect landlocked Central Asia and Afghanistan with the Chabahar port in the Arabian Sea. The Chabahar port is a short distance from Pakistan’s port of Gwadar, which has been developed by China.

Modi-Rouhani ‘pull-aside’ meeting
On Sunday Mr. Modi is expected hold a “pull-aside” meeting with Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran — a country that has stepped its diplomatic engagement with the emerging economies of India, China and Russia, as well as the European Union (EU) to counter a slew of sanctions from the United States, which has walked out of the Iran nuclear deal.

India is a large importer of Iranian oil, but hard currency payments are now likely to be impeded on account of the Trump administration’s unilateral move.

On Saturday, Mr. Rouhani met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the SCO. Iran’s Press TV quoted Mr. Rouhani as saying that Moscow plays a key role in salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal Tehran.

“After the US unilateral and illegal exit, Moscow has an important role in the reinforcement of the JCPOA and fulfillment of the opposite sides’ commitments,” Mr. Rouhani said, referring to Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the official name of the Iran nuclear deal.

India keen on Central Asian ties
Official sources say that India has gone the extra mile to engage with the four Central Asian Republics at the ongoing SCO summit, highlighting the critical importance of this resource rich region in shaping Eurasia.

Mr. Modi on Saturday followed up his meeting with the Uzbek President with a 10 pm engagement with President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon.

“We wanted to convey the message to leaders of Central Asia that we value their partnership greatly, while expanding our engagement with China and Russia, within the SCO family,” and official source told The Hindu.

Mr. Modi on Sunday also met Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Sooronbay Jeenbekov, the President of Kyrghyzstan, which is the next chair of the SCO.

Growing thaw in India-China relations
In talks between Mr. Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday, the two leaders agreed to move forward on a “capacity- building” project in Afghanistan, as a follow up to their decision taken during the Wuhan informal summit that New Delhi and Beijing should work together on an economic undertaking on Afghan soil.

On the economic track, Mr. Xi proposed that the trade between the two countries should reach $100 billion by 2020. In view of India’s adverse balance of trade, the Chinese side agreed to import non-Basmati rice and sugar from India. Apart from agricultural products, Mr. Xi said that he would encourage Indian companies to export high quality pharmaceutical products to China.

India to expand “financial cooperation”
Mr. Modi expressed India’s readiness to expand “financial cooperation” with China by establishing a branch of Bank of China in Mumbai.

The Prime Minster and Mr. Xi also agreed to substantiate their understanding reached in Wuhan to expand people-to-contacts by establishing a new mechanism that will look at strengthening soft-power exchanges between the two countries. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart and state councilor, Wang Yi, will head the new institution that will explore possibilities of deepening cultural exchanges, including films. The first meeting of the new body will take place later this year.

Bollywood captivates China
Mr. Gokhale said Mr. Xi made a specific reference to popularity in China of three Bollywood movies — Dangal, Bahubali and Hindi Medium during the talks.