India awaits details of Iran-China mega-deal

Even as it is about to ink a deal with Beijing for a whopping $400 billion investment by China in strategic sectors in Iran over the next 25 years, the Islamic Republic has sent out words to New Delhi, reassuring that its deal with the communist country would not have any impact on its relations with India.

Tehran reassured New Delhi that the proposed Iran-China agreement would be a roadmap of cooperation between the two nations over the next two-and-a-half decades and it was not being worked out with any “hidden agenda”.

The proposed Iran-China deal sent alarm bells ringing in the United States and the officials of President Donald Trump’s administration informally warned New Delhi about the possibility of the pact paving the way for Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) setting up military bases in the Islamic Republic in future.

New Delhi is cautiously waiting for the details of the proposed deal to come out so that its implications on regional security could be assessed.

The Indian Army recently had an eight-week-long military stand-off with the Chinese PLA along the disputed boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh. Though the two sides started pulling back troops from the face-off scenes, the stand-off brought the relations between the two nations to a new low, particularly after the June 15 clash at Galwan Valley. The Indian Army lost 20 soldiers in the clash. The Chinese PLA too suffered casualties, but never made public how many of its soldiers were injured or killed in the incident.

Tehran is understood to have conveyed to New Delhi that its proposed deal with Beijing signalled its willingness to expand its relations, not only with China but also with India and other nations in Asia.

The Congress on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for a purported move by Tehran to exclude India from the project to lay railway tracks linking the Chabahar Port to Zahedan to Iran-Afghanistan border.

“India dropped from Chabahar Port deal. This is the diplomacy of the Modi government that won laurels even without getting the work done, China worked quietly but gave them a better deal. Big loss for India. But you can’t ask questions!” a senior leader of the main opposition party, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, posted on Twitter on Tuesday.

Though New Delhi last year stopped buying crude oil from Iran to save its entities from United States sanctions, it continued its engagement with Tehran for its role in Chabahar Port in the West Asian Nation as the port would provide India sea-land access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.

Tehran, according to the sources, conveyed to New Delhi that it continued to remain committed to India-Iran partnership on the Chabahar Port project for peace, sustainable development and regional economic integration.

Iran, however, decided to go solo on a project to lay railway tracks linking Chabahar Port to Zahedan close to its border with Afghanistan and finally to Zaranj in Afghanistan. India was interested to take part in the project, but could not move ahead after the US re-imposed sanctions on Iran in November 2018.