Former Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi has said that the perception
in Pakistan that Iran’s Chabahar Port project, that connects India to Afghanistan, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, is a “rival project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)”, is not correct.
“The Chabahar Port project is aimed at connecting Iran with Central Asia, and the ultimate goal is to uplift the Iranian economy,” Kharazi said at an event here. The project was under deliberation for a long time, therefore, it was not correct to link its launch with that of the CPEC, he was cited as saying by Dawn online on Saturday.
India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a trilateral agreement in 2016 to jointly develop the Chabahar Port, opening a new strategic transit route between the three nations and other Central Asian nations, bypassing Pakistan.
On the other hand, the CPEC connects China’s Kashgar in Xinjiang province with Pakistan’s Gwadar port in Balochistan through a network of roads, railways and highways.
India strongly objects to the route of the CPEC corridor, which goes through Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Kharazi, Iran’s Foreign Minister from 1997 to 2005, said that though it was true that India had massively invested in the Chabahar project, it was an open platform for all regional countries to participate in.