Congress questions Centre’s stance on Chabahar Port

Questioning the Centre’s stance on the Chabahar Port project in Iran, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said that “continuity in governance” is an “essential reality” that the Narendra Modi Government refuses to acknowledge, and termed the apparent disengagement from the project a strategic setback to India’s outreach in Central Asia.

Mr. Ramesh’s remarks come amid the absence of any allocation for the Chabahar Port in the 2026–27 Union Budget. In a post on X, he asked, “Does this mean that India has exited, or that its investment commitments for the time being have been fulfilled?”

The Ministry of External Affairs has recently informed Parliament that India has already fulfilled its commitment of contributing $120 million for procuring port equipment and that no additional funding is currently due.

“Chabahar, which is about 170 km west of Pakistan’s Gwadar port built by China, is now not on the horizon. This is a second strategic setback to India’s Central Asian diplomacy, coming as it does after India’s closure of its air force base in Ayni near Dushanbe in Tajikistan,” Mr. Ramesh said.

Recalling India’s engagement with the project, he said New Delhi began exploring investments in Chabahar in the late 1990s as part of a broader India–Afghanistan–Iran cooperation strategy. The project gained renewed momentum after then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attended the 16th Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Tehran.

According to Mr. Ramesh, the Union Cabinet approved an initial investment of $115 million for the project in May 2013. He said this decision was taken even as India was implementing the India–U.S. civil nuclear agreement signed in 2008—an example, he said, of a balanced and strategic foreign policy approach.

The Congress leader also alleged that after coming to power in 2014, the Modi government “repackaged” the Chabahar initiative and projected it as part of the Prime Minister’s own vision without adequately acknowledging the UPA Government’s foundational role.