The accession of Iran to BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—would expand the grouping’s economic and political capacities, India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval has told Ali-Akbar Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported Iranian state media citing an official statement on Tuesday.
The two top security officials held a meeting on the margins of the Meeting of BRICS National Security Advisers and High Representatives on National Security in Johannesburg on Monday.
Iran is among a select group of nations which have been invited to the NSA-level meeting in Johannesburg by the South African presidency.
Call for Removal of Obstacles in Full Activation of Chabahar Port
For his part, Ahmadian described Chabahar port as a “symbol” of bilateral cooperation between the two nations.
The Indian government is involved in the development of the Shahid Beheshti terminal of the Chabahar port, located at the Gulf of Oman seaboard.
During a visit to Tehran in 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed a budget of $500 million to develop the terminal.
New Delhi also entered into a tripartite pact with Afghanistan and Iran in 2016 to facilitate movement of goods and commodities to the Сentral Asian states through the Chabahar port.
The Indian government has said that it wanted to link the Chabahar port to the Moscow-backed International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a multimodal connectivity project linking Russia to Iran and India through central Asia.
However, India’s state-backed India Ports Global Limited (IPGL), which has been managing Chabahar port since 2018, said that development of the port had been hampered by lack of investments from private players who are still wary of “secondary sanctions” due to their association with Iran.
India’s operations in Chabahar were exempted from American unilateral sanctions which kicked in after ex-president Donald Trump pulled out of the 'Iran Nuclear Deal'.
New Delhi has been using the port to supply humanitarian supplies to Afghanistan, including shipments of wheat.