In the wake of signing on to be a part of Quad, India may have been betting on the robust foundation of its strategic alignment with the United States that steering an independent course in other foreign policy matters would not hurt the relationship.
A US state department spokesperson’s warning about sanctions applying to India and any Indians doing business with Iran came soon after India signed a 10-year contract to operate a terminal at the Chabahar port in Iran. This has been described by India as a flagship project that it has been involved in for a long time.
The Chabahar port on the Iranian coast on the Gulf of Oman, very close to the Gwadar port in Balochistan province which Pakistan is developing in partnership with China, is vital in terms of logistics as a route for Indian goods to reach Iran and landlocked Central Asian nations, including Afghanistan. It also figures in India-Iran-Russia cooperation plans to develop a significant trade route.
India may be hoping, as in the case of its massive deals in buying and refining Russian oil for export to Europe as well as domestic use in the wake of the Ukraine war, that the US would not interfere in a project that is only for trade.
There were EU restrictions in place for trading in Russian oil which, however, did not prevent the movement of crude to India and refined fuel out. It was revealed that the US saw its own interests being served in terms of helping keep a check on the global price of oil.
The Chabahar port is a matter in which India is pursuing its interest, which must, of course, come first as much as the buying of a bit of Iranian oil was also thought of as a right not to be interfered with by other powers, however fraught the West’s relationship with Iran may be.
India is also investing in the development of the port infrastructure to facilitate a transport and transit corridor. Given the projected benefits of sharing in the port’s future, India has taken bold steps in pursuit of its interest and that of the region over US objections to dealing with Iran.
