Synopsis
The proposed corridor-which will run parallel to the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)-will aim to connect Mumbai with Bandar Abbas in Iran and then Armenia and onward to Europe or Russia, bypassing Azerbaijan with whom India has lukewarm ties amid its close association with Turkey and Pakistan.
New Delhi: Armenia has proposed a Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor to connect Indian traders with Russia and Europe.
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The offer was made last week by a visiting Armenian team comprising senior officials and experts. It came at a time when Armenia’s foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan was also visiting India.
The proposed corridor-which will run parallel to the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)-will aim to connect Mumbai with Bandar Abbas in Iran and then Armenia and onward to Europe or Russia, bypassing Azerbaijan with whom India has lukewarm ties amid its close association with Turkey and Pakistan.
Armenia, whose ties with India have witnessed an upswing in recent years buoyed by defence exports from here, has sought Indian investments for the corridor in the Armenian territory, sources in the Armenian government indicated to ET.
Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, India’s trade with Russia has increased manifold via the INSTC that connects Mumbai with Russia via Iran and the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan is a key element under INSTC but has been slow in completing an infrastru ..
“At the same time, India’s need for additional trade routes to reach Europe circumventing the Suez Canal remain valid. In parallel to the discussions around INSTC, Iran in 2016 put forward a new international transport corridor project, Persian Gulf-Black Sea, which should connect Iran with Europe via the South Caucasus.
The negotiations were paused during the Covid pandemic, but all potential participants of the project-Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Greece-expressed their int ..