TEHRAN (Iran News) – Behrouz Aghaei, the director-general of Sistan-Baluchestan Province’s Ports and Maritime Department, says Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are in talks to join the Chabahar Agreement.
Aghaei said that last week a couple of Kyrgyz traders came to Chabahar as they wanted to transit their consignments through Chabahar Port and there were serious discussions on transit of goods via Chabahar to India.
On the recent developments on Iran-Afghanistan trade relation, he said in recent days some Afghan traders came to Iran to resume transporting goods via Chabahar Port, adding that last week he had some meetings with Iran’s Consul General Kandahar and with some Afghan traders, and fortunately Afghan traders were keen to resume ties and sending their consignments via Chabahar Port.
He went on to say that that Afghan trade was almost stagnate but recently some activities in the trade in Afghanistan have been seen, adding that Afghans have some problems in transit of goods from Pakistan but this hurdle does not exist in Iran and there is no restriction in Iran for transporting to Indian ports.
Aghaei noted that last year 2,800 containers of Afghan products were transited via Chabahar Port to different destinations which were mainly dried fruits but after recent developments in Afghanistan, major part of trade in Afghanistan is stagnant and exports from this country via Chabahar has slumped but recently Afghan traders have decided to resume their trade.
He said due to some changes in the management of IPGL (India Ports Global Ltd, the operator of Chabahar Port), the programs for reconstruction of Chabahar is pursued seriously.
He also said Uzbeks are keen to join the Iran-India-Afghanistan agreement, adding that there have been some talks with Uzbeks in the past two months and they have asked to join this agreement.
Aghaei went on to say that last week they had meetings with some Kyrgyz traders as they are willing to transit their goods via Chabahar Port. He reiterated that most of traders of countries have been encouraged to enter the Iran transit corridor and it means materializing some goals for developing market for Chabahar Port.
