India's external affairs minister S Jaishankar said the Chabahar port would benefit the entire region and a narrow view should not be taken of it, after the US warned that any country having business dealings with Iran runs the “potential risk of sanctions”.
Speaking in Kolkata, he said in the past, even the US has been appreciative of the fact that the Chabahar port has a larger relevance.
India last week signed a 10-year contract to operate the strategic Iranian port of Chabahar that will help New Delhi expand trade with Central Asia.
“We had a long association with the Chabahar port but we could never sign a long-term agreement. The reason was there were various problems... Finally, we were able to sort this out and we were able to get the long-term agreement done. A long-term agreement is necessary because without it we cannot improve port operations. And, port operations, we believe, will benefit the entire region,” Jaishankar said.
“I did see some remarks which were made, but I think it’s a question of communicating, convincing and getting people to understand this is actually for everybody’s benefit. I don’t think people should take a narrow view of it. And, they have not done so in the past. If you look at the US’ own attitude to Chabahar in the past, the US has been appreciative of the fact that Chabahar has a larger relevance. We will work at it,” he said.
Earlier, a few hours after India signed the agreement with Iran on Chabahar port, the US said there would be no exemptions for Indian firms dealing with Iran from sanctions already in force.
Vedant Patel, the Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the US State Department, told reporters on May 13 that while the agreement was a bilateral matter between India and Iran and that India was free to run its foreign policy the way it wanted, “any entity (or) anyone considering business deals with Iran … need to be aware of the potential risks that they’re opening themselves up to the term risk of sanctions”. Asked if there will be no exemptions, the spokesperson said, “No.”
