During Iranian President Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi’s official visit to Dushanbe, the Ministry of Transport of Tajikistan and the Ministry of Roads and Urban Planning of the Islamic Republic of Iran Tajikistan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on international transportation and transit through Chabahar Port on November 8.

It is to be noted that a MoU is an agreement between two or more parties outlined in a formal document.  It is not necessarily legally binding, which depends on the signatories' intent and the language in the agreement, but signals the willingness of the parties to move forward with a contract.       

Meanwhile, an official source within the Ministry of Transport of Tajikistan (MoT) says four main points were agreed upon as part of this document, in particular:     

• Simplification and coordination of procedures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of transport routes passing through Chabahar Port in terms of time, transit costs and mutual reduction of duties and fees on vehicles; 
• Attracting cargo from other countries to the routes passing through Chabahar Port in order to facilitate access to regional and global markets via sea, rail and road transport; 
• Cooperation on mutual investment in the implementation transport infrastructure development projects on routs passing Chabahar Port;
• Ensuring the safety of passenger traffic, movement of vehicles, cargo storage and environmental protection in accordance with international standards. 

The parties are expected to set up the Steering Committee responsible for coordinating and monitoring activities to provide and support all institutional, human and logistical resources.

According to a MoT, Tajikistan gets access to Chabahar Port in Iran via territories of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.     

It should be noted that the shortest route from Tajikistan to this port lies through the territory of Afghanistan.  However, due to the difficult political situation in this country, its territory has not yet been considered as a transit route to Chabahar Port.   

Currently, Tajikistan uses Iran’s Bandar-Abbas Port in Persian Gulf for transit transportation of some goods to some more remote regions of the world.    

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan and Iran have naturally enjoyed a close and strong relationship with the two often being described as "one spirit in two bodies" by the ex-president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad due to both being Persian-speaking and Iranic countries.

Iran was the first nation to establish an embassy in Dushanbe. It was also one of the first countries to extend diplomatic recognition of the newly independent Tajikistan in 1991.

During the civil war in Tajikistan, Iran offered to mediate between the two factions.  In 1995, Tajikistan opened its first embassy in Tehran, one of the few outside of the former USSR.  Relations have since grown stronger, as the two nations cooperate in the energy sector and officials from both nations have supported stronger ties.

Tajikistan and Iran have traditionally close relations, sharing many similar cultural, religious and ethnic identifiers and Iran has been a major sponsor of essential hydropower infrastructure in Tajikistan, but Iran has angered Tajikistan by inviting the Islamic Revival Party (IRPT) leader Muhiddin Kabiri to attend the International Islamic Unity Conference that took place in Tehran on December 27-29, 2015.

Tajikistan started taking efforts to improve its relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran in early 2019, and the long period of chill in relations between Tajikistan and Iran has come to an end. 

Tajikistan raised the issue of using Chabahar Port in June 2019.  During his meeting with the then Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on June 2, 2019, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin asked for cooperation in Iran's southeastern Chabahar Port as a great trade zone for international cooperation.

Mr. Rouhani, for his part, reportedly said that Chabahar Port can be the best and safest route for transit of Tajik goods.

In late May last year, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon paid an official visit to Tehran and signed 17 cooperation agreements.  The documents entail political, economic and trade cooperation between Tehran and Dushanbe, relations in the transportation sector, joint investment, new technologies, environmental issues, the energy sector, sports interaction, judicial cooperation, research and training, as well as the tourism industry. 

Speaking at a press conference on the results of his visit, Tajik leader noted the importance of developing routes connecting the two countries. 

Experts note that in the future, Chabahar Port can be connected to the Caspian transport system through a railway under construction via the Chabahar-Zahedan railway under construction and the eastern railway line of the “North-South” – “Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran” corridor, which has been operating quite actively.    

Chabahar Port is a seaport in Chabahar located in southeastern Iran, on the Gulf of Oman.  It serves as Iran's only oceanic port, and consists of two separate ports named Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti, each of which has five berths.  It is only about 170 kilometers west of the Pakistani port of Gwadar.

Chabahar Port has the capacity to transform trade in South and Central Asia.  Experts say Chabahar would offer these landlocked countries access to sea-based trading routes and serve as a bulwark against Chinese and Russian attempts to dominate trade in the region.  Therefore, expanded trade with Afghanistan and the Central Asian countries has the potential to bolster Iran’s own status on the international stage.