The port of Chabahar is located on the Makran coast of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, next to the Gulf of Oman and at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz. It is the only Iranian port with direct access to the Indian Ocean. Being close to Afghanistan and the Central Asian countries of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and others, it has been termed the "Golden Gate" to these landlocked countries.
 

India and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan have agreed to appoint dedicated commercial attaches in each other’s capitals as part of a renewed push to expand bilateral trade, currently valued at more than $1 billion. 

The decision was finalized during a meeting in New Delhi between Afghanistan’s Minister of Industry and Commerce Hajji Nooruddin Azizi and India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasad. According to M. Anand Prakash, Joint Secretary of the PAI Division, both sides have committed to stationing trade attaches in their respective embassies to support and monitor trade cooperation. “The Afghan minister will soon be sending a trade attaché to the embassy here,” he said.

During the meeting, Azizi urged India to expedite business visas, establish regular shipping lines from Chabahar Port, support the development of dry ports in Nimruz province, and streamline processes for Afghan goods passing through India’s Nhava Sheva Port.(20251121)

The development comes just days after Afghan Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar instructed Afghan traders to gradually end commercial dependence on Pakistan within three months, citing repeated border closures and what he described as the “political misuse” of trade routes.