Search Result for : Afghanistan

The Dollar Business Bureau India on Sunday sent its first shipment of wheat to Afghanistan via the Iranian port of Chabahar, bypassing Pakistan. This is seen as a ‘landmark’ step to operationalise an alternate transit route. The consignment was flagged off from the port of Kandla in Gujarat with Union Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Afghanistan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani joined the ceremony via video conferencing. “The shipment of wheat is a landmark moment as it will pave the way for operationalisation of the Chabahar port as an alternate, reliable and robust connectivity for Afghanistan,” Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. In June this year, India and Afghanistan had started a direct air freight corridor to enhance trade between the two countries ...

Sneha Gilada Economically tied with high volume trade in crude oil and politically tied with similar interests for stability in the Middle East, especially Afghanistan, India and Iran have traversed a long and tumultuous journey to maintain a healthy trade relationship. In an interview with Hon. Consul General, Hassan Nourian (HN), Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hyderabad; The Dollar Business (TDB) explores current issues in the India-Iran bilateral relationship. Speaking about diverse areas from the ambiguity in payment settlement mechanisms to problems in basmati rice exports, the diplomat lucidly explains the dynamics in India-Iran relations. India-Iran payments settlement issues To ensure smooth trade relations between India and Iran regardless of a series of international and American sanctions imposed against the ...

The Dollar Business Bureau The informal trade between India and Pakistan is projected to be more than $5 billion, nearly double the official bilateral trade between the two neighbours having a history of chequered relations, said a study by ASSOCHAM.  The paper by ASSOCHAM on “India-Pakistan Trade” is based on well-studied documents and reports by more than top 50 think tanks and research firms, including Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), yearly reports of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Institute of South Asian Studies-National University of Singapore, Lahore Journal of Economics, among others. “Traders/Smugglers mainly carry out the informal trade between Pakistan and India through the exchange of goods at the Indo-Pakistan borders as well as ...

The Dollar Business Bureau In a bid to take forward the Chabahar Agreement on the establishment of International Transport and Transit Corridor, a trilateral meeting was held in the national capital between Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, India; Dr. Mohammadullah Batash, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Afghanistan; and Dr. Abbas Ahmed Akhoundi, Minister of Road and Urban Development, Iran. The Chabahar Agreement was signed by the three ministers on 23rd May, 2016 in Tehran in the presence of the Prime Minister of India and Presidents of Iran and Afghanistan respectively. According to an official release, the meeting reiterated the importance of Chabahar as a hub for regional connectivity and the commitment of the involved countries to work towards ...

The Dollar Business Bureau  Underlining that Afghanistan’s farm production and exports have been on a growth trajectory, Afghanistan on Tuesday invited Indian businesses to invest in the country’s agriculture sector and emphasised that it offers vast opportunities in its manufacturing, marketing, packaging and processing of farm products. "Rebuilding trade relationships and expanding export markets for Afghan products are critical for Afghanistan’s job creation, capital flows and overall stability," said Abdul Qadeer Jawad, Afghanistan’s Deputy Minister for Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock. The Minister pointed out that Afghanistan is committed to producing agri-products in line with WTO norms. The country will become the 164th official member of the WTO on July 29. “Afghanistan is looking for potential investors in the areas of agriculture manufacturing and ...

The Dollar Business Bureau Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to fly to Afghanistan on Saturday to hold talks with President Ashraf Ghani and inaugurate the Afghan-India friendship dam, which was formerly known as the Salma dam. Modi, during his five-nation official tour, will also visit Qatar, Switzerland, USA and Mexico. Around 1,500 Indian and Afghani engineers worked hard in the completion of the project. The dam, whose worth is over $2 billion is located to the west of Herat near the Iranian border. It is one of the two major projects that India had an agreement inked with Afghanistan. The meet between the PM and Afghan president will also be an opportunity to discuss the crisis faced by Afghanisthan. The two leaders may ...

The Dollar Business Bureau The strategic Chabahar port agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan is not over yet and China and Pakistan are welcome to become a part of it, said Iranian envoy to Pakistan. The trilateral agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran, India and Afghanistan on the strategically important Chabahar port is ‘not finished’ yet and is “not limited to the three countries”, said Mehdi Honerdoost, Iranian Envoy to Pakistan, while speaking to Dawn newspaper, on Pakistan-Iran relations. The Ambassador said that the offer for cooperation had been first made to Pakistan and after that to China, and implied none of them had shown interest. Both are sister ports, and authorities at Chabahar port would extend a hand of cooperation to Gwadar ...

Source: PTI   India will host a major conference on Wednesday aimed at bringing peace and stability to war-ravaged Afghanistan and speeding up its reconstruction with a focus on boosting investment and enhancing connectivity to the country. The 'Heart of Asia' (HoA) conference, to be attended by officials of a number of countries including Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, is likely to deliberate on a host of issues such a combating challenge of extremism and terrorism. The key elements of HoA process have been to devise a sustained, incremental approach to implementation of the confidence building measures (CBM) in Afghanistan and the officials are set to deliberate on them during the conference. Energy, infrastructure and investment deals to shore up economic growth of Afghanistan ...