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India ticks off US for Iran sanctions
Would Affect Our Energy Security: Nirupama
Indrani Bagchi | TNN
New Delhi:
India is pressing the reset button on its relations with Iran. In a significant comment, India ticked off the US for its recent sanctions against Iran, which it said would directly affect Indian companies and Indias energy security.
In a speech at an India-Iran strategic dialogue here, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said, We are justifiably concerned that the extra-territorial nature of certain unilateral sanctions recently imposed by individual countries, with their restrictions on investment by third countries in Irans energy sector, can have a direct and adverse impact on Indian companies and more importantly, on our energy security and our attempts to meet the development needs of our people.
India imports 18 million tonnes of oil from Iran out of a total of 140 million tonnes annually. According to sources, Indias investment in Irans energy sector is around $100 million. Thus, Indias objections are political in nature, and intimately connected to a prospective India-Iran detente over Afghanistan. In other words, if Pakistan is sporting the Taliban as its cure for the Afghan problem, India is signalling that it will play its own game in the region as it tries to limit the Talibans reach.
Rao pressed Iran to complete procedures that would let India finish building the Chahbahar port. Its also clear that India is hedging its bets in case of a US withdrawal from Afghanistan, leaving the Pakistan-sponsored Taliban in a powerful situation in Afghanistan. Neither of our countries wish to see the prospect of extremist groups once again suppressing the aspirations of the Afghan people and forcing Afghanistan back to being a sanctuary for terrorist groups, Rao said.
Indian officials have found that the Iranians have been very tardy in facilitating projects for Chahbahar. One of the reasons could be that Chahbahar is in Sunni-dominated Balochistan, which stays in the shadow of Iranian policies. These are projects that are in the common interest of not only India, Iran and Afghanistan but also the countries of Central Asia. Improving the connectivity of Chahbahar port to the Zaranj-Delaram highway (which was built with Indian assistance despite terrorist threats and has transformed the economy of Nimroz province in Afghanistan) will open up the Indian market to Afghan exports. It will also help in combating the scourge of illicit drugs production and export and assist the trade,
transport and transit network of Iran, she said.
On Irans nuclear programme, Rao stuck to the official Indian position, that as an NPT signatory, Iran had certain rights and responsibilities and negotiation was the answer. The underlying message that India is sending out is that despite its opposition to Irans nuclear programme, it is ready to re-engage Iran in a big way, as both countries find increasing convergence on their interests in the Afghanistan conundrum.
