(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- ndia has joined the Ashgabat Agreement, an international transport and transit corridor between the governments of Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan signed on April 25, 2011.
Turkmenistan, as depository state of Ashgabat Agreement, informed India on February 1, 2018, that all the four founding members have consented to its accession. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that India's accession to the agreement came into force on February 3, 2018.
Ashgabat Agreement envisages facilitation of transit and transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Gulf. 'Accession to the agreement would diversify India's connectivity options with Central Asia and have a positive influence on India's trade and commercial ties with the region,' MEA stated.
During a meeting of the four member states in Muscat in 2014, H E Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Oman's Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs, had said that the state parties were looking forward to achieving tangible results from the transport corridor.
India's accession has strengthened the agreement as it is one of the leading players in the region.
Speaking toMuscat Daily
, Professor P Stobdan, a foreign policy expert and senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said, 'India is working to set up other international transport corridors, thereby facilitating trade and commercial interaction with the Eurasian region.'
He has been India's ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Kyrgyzstan until recently. 'India has acceded to the Ashgabat Agreement keeping the Central Asian sector in mind. After India signed the Chabahar Port Agreement it became more imperative for India to join the Ashgabat Agreement.'
Chabahar Port Agreement is a trilateral transit and trade corridor agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan, facilitating goods movement towards Central Asia and Europe. 'The objective and key benefit of this agreement (Ashgabat) is to enhance connectivity within Eurasian region and synchronise it with other transport corridors within that region including the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).'
INSTC is a multi-modal transport agreement established by Iran, Russia and India. The corridor connects the Indian Ocean and Gulf to the Caspian Sea via Iran, and connected to St Petersburg and North European via Russian Federation. INSTC was expanded to include 11 new members, including Oman.
'Accession to the agreement would enable India to utilise the existing transport and transit corridors to facilitate trade and commercial interaction with the Eurasian region. Further, this would synchronise with India's efforts to implement INSTC for enhanced connectivity,' Professor Stobdan said.
For India, the agreement will allow Chabahar-Iranshahr-Zahedan-Mashhad corridor to reach out further to connect with Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on the one hand and with Northern Iran, Western Turkmenistan, Western Kazakhstan and the Caspian region on the other hand, he added.
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