TEHRAN (Iran News) – Deputy Minister of Transportation of Uzbekistan Mr. Jasurbek Choriev during his visit to Chabahar Port announced readiness of Uzbekistan for investment in Chabahar Port.
Leading a delegation, Choriev visited Chabahar Port and met with Director General of Maritime and Ports Organization of Sistan and Baluchestan Mr. Behrouz Aqaee and during the meeting both sides explored ways for cooperation.
In the meeting, Aqaee pointed to the political will of the two countries for cooperation and economic development so that Uzbekistan and Iran need more interactions in the post-COVID era and this is because of the tough economic competition in the world.
Meanwhile Choriev, for his part, said that during his visit from the facilities of Chabahar Port, they have become more interested in investment because countries of Iran, India and Uzbekistan enjoy having great historical and cultural commonalities and the trade between them has been for long time.
He said the trade volume of Uzbekistan and India by using Chabahar Port can have effective role in easing transportation and logistics between the countries in the region.
He added that the trade volume between Uzbekistan and India increased considerably last year, adding that Chabaha Port can have more effective role in facilitating the transportation and logistics in the regional states.
Then Aqaee announced readiness of the port for any investment from other countries and with the launch of railroad in Chabahar, all will witness development in the region and trans-region. He then pointed to the traffic and competition for investment in the port, and said if Uzbekistan intends to invest, it should rush and this readiness exists in the port to welcome goods from Uzbekistan as well as transfer of goods to CIS favorably.
Later Aqaee in an interview with ILNA said that Uzbeks after the visit announced their readiness for long term investment in Chabahar and Shahid Beheshti Port, adding that the organization tabled three proposals for cooperation with Uzbeks. He said the first proposal to Uzbeks was to invest in the developmental phases of Chabahar Port and it is possible that the second phase of Shahid Beheshti Port is totally handed over to Uzbeks, adding that of course Uzbeks can also involve in the phases 2 and 3 and also invest in the infrastructures and providing equipment for Chabahar Port.
He noted that the second proposal is to use the existing infrastructures and they can use the infrastructures of the ports in Sistan and Baluchestan for transit of goods.
Aqaee then pointed to the third proposal and said that Uzbeks can join the Chabahar agreement, adding that the trilateral agreement of Chabahar has been signed between Iran, India and Afghanistan and Uzbeks have been asked to join the agreement.
He noted that next month there will be a meeting in the ministerial level between the two countries and during the meeting, the talks will become more serious and Uzbeks will speak out their decisions.
