Yet another dimension has got added to India’s slipshod diplomacy to counter China. Like in our subcontinent and to some extent in Africa, we have failed to deliver in time on our promises in Iran. This has prompted Iran to cancel out India’s participation in two projects – construction of a 628-km railway link between the provincial capital of Zahedan with Chabahar, where India has built and operationalised a strategic port, and development of the Farzad-B gasfield. India had committed to supplying tracks and rakes for the railway project.
Since steel is not exempted under the US sanctions in force against Iran, New Delhi was waiting for Washington to make a concession which never came. India had also started dragging its feet on the Farzad gasfield, where ONGC Videsh and Indian Oil were to be the lead players, after the sanctions forced European and Australian consultancy firms to withdraw from their contracts and the State Bank of India also raised concerns. Earlier, India was forced to go along with the US sanctions and stop exporting crude oil from Iran.
India has traditionally been closer to Iran than other west Asian countries because of our civilisational links. Is the Iran fiasco is in some way a failure of our diplomacy? One needs to remember that the Chabahar project was conceived during the BJP-led government of Atal Behari Vajpayee and taken forward by Manmohan Singh.
Even Narendra Modi has visited Teheran in 2016 to lend his support to the project. Thus, both railway project and Farhad gas field are strategic losses for India. The loss is greater because Iran has drifted away from India towards China which has been quick to capitalise upon the situation.
Iran and China view each other as successor states to civilisational empires. Both share a sense of past humiliation in the hands of foreign players.