'Need for both of us...': Afghan foreign minister urges India-US talks to lift sanctions on Chabahar Port

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi called for joint efforts between India and Afghanistan to engage with the United States in removing sanctions on Iran’s Chabahar Port — a key trade and transit route linking South Asia to Central Asia and Europe.

“Chabahar will be a good way… India and Afghanistan should try to remove obstacles, because the US has also put some sanctions. India and Afghanistan should have joint talks with the US. It is the need for both of us to use this route,” Muttaqi said in New Delhi on October 10, emphasising the port’s importance in sustaining regional trade.

Muttaqi is on a six-day visit to India aiming to boost ties with New Delhi and his trip was made possible after the UN Security Council Committee temporarily lifted a travel ban on him to allow diplomatic engagements abroad.

The comments come in the wake of Washington’s recent decision to revoke the waiver of sanctions previously granted to India for its involvement in Iran’s Chabahar Port project. The waiver, first issued in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s tenure, had allowed India to continue developing and operating the port despite broader US sanctions on Iran.

The revocation threatens to derail India’s strategic and economic outreach in West and Central Asia, where Chabahar plays a vital role. Located just 550 nautical miles (around 1,000 km) from Gujarat’s Kandla Port, Chabahar provides India with direct access to Afghanistan and Central Asia — bypassing Pakistan.

India, which signed an MoU with Iran on Chabahar in May 2015 and followed it up with a trilateral agreement including Afghanistan in 2016, has invested nearly half of its allocated ₹400 crore in the project. Cargo traffic through the port has grown steadily in recent years, with experts seeing it as a gateway for India’s connectivity ambitions.

However, the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran in 2018 — including the withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and reimposition of sanctions — had already disrupted India’s trade with Tehran. India was forced to end its imports of Iranian oil, and progress on Chabahar slowed amid fears of secondary sanctions.

Muttaqi’s remarks underscore the growing regional consensus on the port’s strategic necessity. “We understand the importance of trade, which has increased, and all trade routes should be open… If the route is closed, it affects trade between India and Afghanistan,” he said.