TEHRAN (Iran News) – India Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is scheduled to arrive in Tehran tomorrow for a two-day visit.

In Tehran, India foreign minister, Jaishankar will attend the 19th Joint Commission meeting between Iran and India, which will be co-chaired by Indian and Iranian foreign ministers.

The visit comes two days after a commission formed by Iran, India, and Afghanistan to oversee the Chabahar agreement, held its second meeting in India’s capital New Delhi on Friday.

The three countries agreed to finalize a protocol to streamline transit, customs and consular matters at the Chabahar port, located on the Sea of Oman in Sistan and Baluchestan Province.

“All three countries welcomed steady progress in port operations by India Ports Global Company since the taking over of the port operations at Shaheed Beheshti port at Chabahar in December 2018,” Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement, PTI reported.

It was recognized that over 500,000 tons of cargo have been handled successfully. This includes exports from Afghanistan through Chabahar port which began in February 2019, the statement said.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs informed that it was also agreed to include Mormugoa and New Mangalore port from India, in addition to JNPT, Mundra, Kandla, and Cochin, as part of the designated route under the Chabahar agreement.

“A study will be conducted by Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) to streamline cargo transit through Shahid Beheshti port of Chabahar,” said the Ministry of External Affairs.

It was also agreed to finalize the protocol to harmonize transit, roads, customs, and consular matters. Until that time, the TIR Convention will continue to be used for cargo movement.

The Ministry of External Affairs in its statement said it was agreed to organize promotional and business events in Afghanistan and India to popularize Chabahar port and to hold the third Follow-up Committee meeting in India in the first half of 2020 followed by the second Coordination Council meeting.

India, Afghanistan, and Iran signed the trilateral transit agreement or the Chabahar agreement in May 2016. India, which sees the Iranian port as key to bypassing Pakistan to access markets in Afghanistan and Central Asia, took over operations at Shahid Beheshti terminal in Chabahar in December 2018 through a special purpose.

Recently, the United States provided a rare exemption to India from sanctions on the Chabahar port as it recognizes that the strategic project is a lifeline for war-torn Afghanistan to get humanitarian supplies from India, according to a senior US administration official on Wednesday.