Opinion | Chabahar At The Crossroads: India’s Strategic Patience In An Unforgiving Neighbourhood |
As the six-month US sanctions waiver on India’s operations at Iran’s Chabahar Port edges towards expiry on April 26, New Delhi is navigating one of the most intricate geopolitical tests it has faced in recent years. This is not a crisis of India’s making, nor one that can be resolved through rhetorical bravado or quiet capitulation. It is, instead, a measure of strategic patience, diplomatic dexterity, and the true meaning of “strategic autonomy" in a fractured world.
India has been categorical on one point: walking away from Chabahar is not an option. The port is not a vanity project or a transient commercial bet. It is a carefully cultivated strategic asset, and deadlines alone do not negate decade-long calculations.
Chabahar, fittingly, means “four offspring"—a reference to the four natural inlets or bays along Iran’s southeastern coast. The name is poetic, but its relevance to India is profoundly strategic.
For New Delhi, Chabahar represents four critical outcomes. First, it offers direct access to Afghanistan and Central Asia without transiting Pakistan—a geopolitical workaround India has sought for decades. Second, it anchors the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC), linking India to Iran, Russia, and Europe through a multimodal trade route. Third, it functions as a humanitarian lifeline, enabling aid shipments to Afghanistan when other routes are blocked. And fourth, it serves as a strategic counterweight to China’s deep-water presence at Gwadar under the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Abandoning Chabahar would not merely stall a port project; it would mean relinquishing strategic space in a region where geography is destiny. India has said it continues to engage with both the United States and Iran to sustain operations at the strategically important facility.
The current US waiver........