Pawan Kumar
Infrastructure negotiations with India
New Delhi: India may have a new ally in its effort to expand its commercial and economic influence in Central Asia. According to those with knowledge of the situation, Armenia plans to press for additional Indian infrastructure investment in an effort to forge stronger economic relations with India and Central Asia. Mint has learned that Armenia, which has recently developed stronger strategic ties with India, is seeking to forward talks with New Delhi in order to revive the ambitious International North South Corridor, which is supported by India (INSTC).
By resuming direct flights between New Delhi and Yerevan by the spring of this year, Armenia also hopes to strengthen commercial and tourist relations.
According to the sources mentioned above, Armenia is looking forward to discussions regarding the INSTC, a flagship initiative by India, Iran, and Russia to build a 7,200 kilometre multimodal transport network connecting India to Iran, Armenia, and Central Asia. The main goal of INSTC is to lessen trade friction and transit times between the 13 participating nations.
Indian products will have simpler access to Central Asian and Eastern European markets if they are successful. India’s contribution to the economies of these areas has been negligible. The project involves countries in Eastern Europe including Ukraine as well as Central Asian governments like Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan.
According to the individuals mentioned above, Armenia is interested in luring Indian infrastructure companies to help strengthen communication with Iran, with which the Central Asian country shares a border. The southern areas of the nation lack the necessary infrastructure to transport commodities from Iran to Central Asia and Europe.
Armenia has indicated a desire to award contracts to Indian infrastructure companies for the building of the roads, tunnels, and other physical infrastructure required to connect the country to Iran in order to carry out the INSTC programme.
However, these individuals also claimed that whereas Iranian businesses have expressed a lot of interest in these endeavours, Indian businesses have mainly remained silent.
However, in an effort to strengthen the INSTC and broaden India’s economic reach, the government has expressed interest in improving connection between Iran and Armenia. Increasing connection via INSTC was a prominent agenda topic for external affairs minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Armenia in 2021, the first ever by an Indian foreign minister.
Jaishankar and Ararat Mirzoyan advocated including Iran’s Chabahar, which will receive Indian commodities by sea, in the INSTC as part of this initiative. Then, with improved road connectivity to Armenia, Indian goods might enter the markets of Central Asia and Europe.
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