Tasnim An Indian ship carrying a major consignment of 75,000 tons of wheat for Afghanistan has arrived at Irans southeastern port of Chabahar, a report said.
"251 containers carrying the first consignment of 5,022 MT of wheat out of a total gift of 75,000 MT from India to Afghanistan set sail from the Kandla Port to the Chabahar Port on Sunday. The remaining consignments will follow in the weeks ahead. India is gifting 5,00,000 tablets of HydroxyChloroquine to Afghanistan for health professionals and COVID-19 positive cases, the Embassy of India in Kabul said recently in a post on social media.
On Friday, the Director-General of Ports and Maritime Department of Sistan and Balouchestan Province Behrouz Aqaei, confirmed that the cargo had arrived at the port and will be delivered to Afghanistan via land borders.
Afghanistan's Ambassador to Tehran Abdul Ghafoor Liwal, who visited Chabahar port concurrent with the arrival of the Indian shipment, voiced his countrys gratitude for both Iran and India and expressed hope that the shipment would be transferred to his country as soon as possible.
In 2016, Iran, India, and Afghanistan decided to jointly establish a trade route for land-locked Central Asian countries.
India sent its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through Chabahar Port back in 2017.
Later on, in February 2019, the Afghanistan-Iran-India trade corridor for the trade between the two countries through Chabahar Port was officially inaugurated.
India which initially committed up to $500 million for the development of Chabahar Port along with associated roads and rail lines, doubled the allocated funding for the development of the port in its national budget bill for 2020.