What’s in the news?

• India and Iran signed a 10-year contract for the operation of a terminal at the strategically important Chabahar port in Iran.

About

• Chabahar is a deep water port in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province. 
• It is the Iranian port that is the closest to India, and is located in the open sea, providing easy and secure access for large cargo ships.
• Modern Chabahar came into being in the 1970s.
• For India, Chabahar held immense strategic and economic significance, as it provided a route to reach Afghanistan  land access to which had been blocked by Pakistan.