The Role of Chabahar in the Expansion of Indo-Iranian Relations: Opportunities and Challenges ( 2015-2020)

Iran and India are two countries that have had relations ever since the inception of their respective civilizations. Their relationship is both defined in cultural similarities and by their geopolitical proximity. In recent decades, the relationship has been cultivated to form ties marked by their willingness to go beyond their cultural affinity and to work together out of mutual geoeconomic necessity for oil. Since the signing of the trilateral agreement between Iran, India and Afghanistan to develop Chabahar, Iran and India have made strides to further relations in various areas such as working together to develop Chabahar and the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) in addition to helping to stabilize Afghanistan. Even though their relations seem to be strong, these bilateral ties are affected by obstacles and factors such as the tumultuous relationship of the United States (the US) and Israel with Iran and India's rivalry with China and Pakistan. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effect of Chabahar on future Indo-Iranian relations and how external factors such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Gwadar Port, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, the US and Israel affect the relationship and to determine what the opportunities and challenges are that both Iran and India face and how the relationship can affect their foreign policies, regional and extra-regional stability, integration as well as regional convergence and divergence by using foreign policy analysis (FPA) and critical geopolitics methods as tools of analysis.