New transit-transportation lines to expand Azerbaijan's strategic influence in international sphere

Report News Agency presents the article by the Embassy of India to Azerbaijan about the new developments in the field of transit:

Recently, the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways of India Ayush Sarbananda Sonowal visited Shahid Beheshti port in Chabahar, Iran and handed over 6 mobile cranes to the port in order to strengthen the port's transport potential.

On the eve of the visit, the minister also announced that his country has taken measures to increase the transit potential of Chabahar, especially in the trade of Japan, South Korea and Central Asian countries, and emphasized that India is continuing its efforts to turn Chabahar port into a regional transit center.

On the other hand, on August 22, the heads of customs of Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding in the field of transit facilitation, and the parties proposed to sign a quadrilateral memorandum of understanding to facilitate transit between customs, including India.

Chabahar Port is India's first foreign port project. This port is considered the main pillar of India's Indo-Pacific strategy, connecting Eurasia with the Indian Ocean region. The port will also be part of the International North-South Transport Corridor. This corridor passing through Azerbaijan occupies an important place in the trade perspective of India, as well as the countries of the Indian Ocean region with Russia, Europe and Central Asia.

Since the Indian company "India Ports Global Private Limited (IPGPL)" took over the operations of Shahid Beheshti Port, more than 4.8 million tons of cargo have been transported from Chabahar port.

It should be noted that in recent months, on the one hand, the Ukrainian war and Western sanctions against Russia, and on the other hand, the closure of the Black Sea Road after the war, have again turned the attention to the North-South Transport Corridor and Chabahar Port. This has further increased the importance of Azerbaijan in international trade as an alternative, profitable and safe transit route.

India, which has strategic relations with Moscow, uses Chabahar port for access to Russia and other countries of the region, which reduces the cost of container transportation to countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) by a factor of five.

The value of India's annual export of goods to countries that are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States reaches 4-4.5 billion dollars, of which about 2.85 billion dollars belongs to Russia alone.

Over the years, India’s bilateral trade with Azerbaijan increased substantially from around US$ 50 million in 2005 to US$ 739 million in 2021. The bilateral trade further increased to US$ 871.15 million during January - May 2022 with an increase of 108.9% and India became Azerbaijan's fourth largest trade partner after Italy, Turkiye and Russia. During the period, Azerbaijan’s export to India was US$ 796.97 million with an increase of 127.63% and import from India was US$ 74.18 million with an increase of 10.9% as compared to the same period of last year.

As a result of the increase in the activity of the Chabahar port and the focus of the trade of other countries located in the Indian Ocean region with the CIS and Northern European countries on the North-South corridor, Azerbaijan's position in international trade will become stronger.

Taking into account the potential of our country's transport infrastructure and strategic geographical position, these developments will not only bring serious transit revenues to our country, but will further increase Azerbaijan's credibility in the international arena and make Baku one of the main players in global trade.

From a political point of view, Azerbaijan's geopolitical position and new transit-transportation lines, especially the North-South transport corridor passing through this country, will inevitably increase the political weight of the country and expand Baku's strategic influence in the international sphere.