India’s Central Asia Strategy: Chabahar Port, Connectivity and the Iran Sanctions Challenge

The Indian dream of increasing economic and strategic engagement with the region of Central Asia has always been challenged by the issue of geography itself. The reality is that India does not share a direct land boundary with the states of Central Asia; besides, the overland access through Pakistan is politically closed for India. Chabahar Port of Iran became a viable option to make India access Iran by sea and move ahead further towards Afghanistan and Central Asia from there. The situation has changed very drastically now. The imposition of sanctions on Iran by the USA, the expiry of previous [...]