Chabahar Delegation Visits Spain's Port City of Coruna

The Iranian delegation was accompanied on its visit by Conselleria do Mar, Rosa Quintana and the president of Autoridad Portuaria de A Coruna (APC–A Coruna Port Authority), as well as by the people in charge of the Lonja. 

The group was briefed on the entire fish production chain, PortSEurope reported on Monday.

Located in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan Province, Chabahar Port is the main fishing dock in the region with great potential for development, which also boasts a free trade zone. The port seeks to promote cooperation between its companies and businesses in Galicia.

The commercial mission was coordinated by Addfour Synthesis Corporation SL, a Spanish company with presence in Iran. It started on Sunday and will continue throughout the week with visits to industrial complexes dedicated to fish processing, equipment manufacturing companies, canneries, aquaculture companies and fishing piers.

President of Chabahar Port Authority Farzin Haqdel participated in the first Hispano-Iranian Business Meeting, organized by Club Financiero Atlantico in conjunction with the Galician company Addfour Synthesis Corporation, which addressed future joint activities between Spain and Iran.

Last December, it was reported that India had formally taken over operations at Iran’s strategic Chabahar Port, a move that could have significant geopolitical ramifications in the region.

The port is being built largely by India and is expected to provide a key supply route for Afghanistan while allowing India to bypass rival Pakistan to trade with Central Asia.

Chabahar is located in southeastern Iran, north of the Oman Sea, with access to international open seas. It benefits from geo-political, geo-economic and geo-strategic potentials. It is located both in South-North and East-West transit corridors and can act as a transport gateway, as well as a central commercial hub for CIS countries, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia and Europe.

Chabahar Port Development Plan will give momentum to the development of South-North transit corridor and consequently international trade in the region.

It consists of two port complexes, namely Shahid Kalantari Port and Shahid Beheshti Port. 

Shahid Kalantari Port is a traffic port and the vision for Shahid Beheshti Port Development is to transform it into a multimodal and fourth generation port, hence it can function as a regional hub port.

However, uncertainty remains over the future of the strategically-important Chabahar Port.

Despite India getting exemption for the port’s development from sanctions reimposed by the United States on Iran last November, European and Chinese suppliers who had won the bid to supply equipment for the port are now reluctant to proceed, fearing an adverse impact of the sanctions on their business.