Afghanistan Sends First Consignment to China via Iranian Port

Afghanistan’s first transit goods to China via Iran’s southeastern Chabahar port was shipped, announced the director general of Ports and Maritime Department of Sistan and Baluchestan Province on Sunday. Behrouz Aghaei said the shipment was carried out through Shahid Beheshti port in Chabahar, IRNA reported. Chabahar is located in southeastern Iran, on the Gulf of Oman. It serves as Iran’s only oceanic port, and consists of two separate ports named Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti, each equipped with five berths.

The official said Shahid Beheshti port of Chabahar has taken a big step to facilitate trade between Central Asian countries and Afghanistan with the countries of south and southeast Asia by establishing regular container transportation services. Saying that Afghanistan’s first transit shipment of dried fruits was sent to Tianjin Port in China, he said that the cargo was sent to the Indian port of Mundra via Chabahar, which was unloaded at this port and loaded on another ship to its final destination. During the past month, Afghanistan sent three transit consignments to India via Shahid Beheshti port in Chabahar, Mehr News Agency reported on Sunday.

On July 1, Aghaei announced that Afghanistan sent 39 containers with a total capacity of 76 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) to India through Iran’s southeastern Chabahar port. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Transport announced on July 17 that the country’s third transit cargo ship has sailed to India through the Iranian port of Chabahar. The shipment was sent despite reports by certain regional media that have recently claimed the Iran-India-Afghanistan tripartite cooperation development project through the port of Chabahar had failed. Afghanistan’s first and second transit cargo of dried fruits was exported to India through Chabahar port about twenty days ago.

Meanwhile, Indian-donated wheat is being transported to Afghanistan through Chabahar port and so far, five shipments have been transferred from Chabahar to Afghanistan. The port of Chabahar is of great importance to India due to its strategic location and closest access to landlocked Central Asian countries such as Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.

New Delhi, Kabul, and Tehran inked a trilateral deal in 2016 to develop Shahid Beheshti Port as a hub for the transit of goods from India to landlocked Afghanistan. The caretaker of the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade, Hossein Modarres Khiabani said at a meeting of the Sistan and Baluchestan Economic Working Group in Chabahar on July 10 that the port will soon become the third commercial hub of Iran due to its infrastructure, capacities, and strategic position and will be located next to Bandar Abbas and Imam Port.

Chabahar port, with its 300 km water border in the Oman Sea as the only ocean port in Iran, outside the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz on the shores of the Mokran Sea (Oman), has an important role in developing trade, export, and import of goods and fishing. - Iran Daily