Kabul, Nov. 12 (TNS): In a significant sign of trilateral cooperation, the first consignment of wheat from India to Afghanistan reached the Afghan city of Zaranj near the Iran-Afghanistan border on Saturday via the Iranian port of Chabahar, thereby bypassing Pakistan, Afghan media reported on Sunday.
The consignment was flagged off by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani on October 29.
The consignment was welcomed with traditional Afghan and Indian songs, dances and joy, the reports added.
The strategic sea route, officials say, will help improve trade and transit connectivity between Kabul and New Delhi. It will also potentially give India access to Central Asian markets through Afghanistan, because rival Pakistan does not allow Indian goods to be transported through its territory.
The shipment of almost 15,000 tons of wheat dispatched from India’s western port of Kandla on October 29 reached the Iranian port of Chabahar on November 1.
It was then loaded on trucks and brought by road to the Afghan province of Nimroz, which borders Iran.
Speaking at a special ceremony to receive the historic consignment in the border town of Zaranj, India’s ambassador to Kabul, Manpreet Vohra, said the shipment has demonstrated the viability of the new route. He added that India, Afghanistan and Iran agreed to operationalize the Chabahar port only a year-and-a-half ago.
“The ease and the speed with which this project is already working is evident from the fact that as we are receiving the first trucks of wheat here in Zaranj, the second ship from Kandla has already docked in Chabahar,” Vohra announced.
He said there will be seven shipments between now and February and a total of 110,000 tons of wheat will come to Afghanistan through Chabahar. Vohra added the shipments are part of a promised 1.1 million tons of wheat as India’s “gift” to Afghanistan out of which 700,000 has already been sent to the country.
India is investing $500 million in Chabahar port to build new terminals, cargo berths and connecting roads, as well as rail lines.
The Indian shipment arrived in Afghanistan days after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on a visit to New Delhi, allayed concerns the Trump administration’s tough stand on Iran could pose a fresh stumbling block to India’s plans to develop the strategic Iranian port as a regional transit hub.
