- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
The upcoming summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, could see India giving a major push to a mega connectivity plan for Eurasia with the Chabahar port in Iran being a major focal point, the Indian envoy to the central Indian republic has said.
Manish Prabhat, the Indian ambassador to Ukraine, spoke to ThePrint in an exclusive interview in which he said India, which will take over the SCO’s chairmanship from Uzbekistan in the upcoming summit, is likely to push the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) besides the Iranian port.
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He also said that New Delhi has been making efforts to ensure that Uzbekistan plays a key role with India, Iran, and Russia in the promotion and operationalisation of the Iranian port and the INSTC.
India has avoided joining China’s Belt & Road Initiative but aims to become a rival to it and hence attaches much importance to the Chabahar port and the INSTC projects when it comes to connectivity between Eurasia and South Asia. China is also among the members of the SCO and India’s plan at the summit makes it evident that within the grouping too, the two countries’ rivalry over bettering connectivity and transforming them into big trade routes is very much present.
“PM Modi’s visit to Uzbekistan (for the SCO Summit) shows the importance India attaches to its strategic partner Uzbekistan. On a broader perspective, it also shows that India attaches a great deal of importance to its relationship with all the Central Asian countries. What happens in Central Asia should remain the core concern of the SCO. Central Asia is important for SCO,” ThePrint quoted Prabhat as saying.
“India has always promoted Chabahar Port. We have requested all our partners in Central Asia and also Uzbekistan that we should prioritise Chabahar and Chabahar should become the hub of connectivity between India and Central Asia,” he added.
“Of course there are other kinds of connectivity being pursued by other countries. But Uzbekistan is supportive of the Chabahar initiative. It was Uzbekistan which took the initiative to call for the trilateral meeting among India, Iran and Uzbekistan and how we can promote greater usage of this port. Two rounds of meetings have already taken place. In the next round, countries plan to invite other partners also,” the envoy said.
The two-day SCO summit on Thursday (15) and Friday (16) will see the presence of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Chinese president Xi Jinping, Russian president Vladimir Putin, and a number of other leaders from countries such as the four central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and others.
