India Slow to Expand Iran Port as China Races Ahead at Rival Hub
- Chabahar port to rival Pakistan’s Gwadar, but progress lags
- India vexed by China’s Silk Road trade push through Pakistan
Leaders of India, Iran, Afghanistan: Narendra Modi, Hassan Rouhani, Ashraf Ghani in Tehran on May 23, 2016.
Photographer: Iran Presidency/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
When the leaders of India, Iran and Afghanistan gathered in Tehran in the spring for a ceremony marking India’s development of a strategic Iranian port, they recited Persian poetry and said their partnership would “alter the course of history.”
On a recent visit, roughly 13 years after India first agreed to develop the port of Chabahar, a single ship floated at the main jetty. Most of the cargo containers scattered in an asphalt lot bore the logo of the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. In an adjacent harbor, a dozen wooden dhows, or traditional fishing boats, bobbed in the water.