“Whoever controls trade routes, controls power”, the old lesson rings true today.
Connectivity is now as central to influence as military strength, economic size, or diplomacy. Countries that manage to build reliable corridors for goods and energy often find their reach extending well beyond their borders.
For India, Iran, and Armenia, this reality is shaping a new partnership that blends strategy with geography. The three countries have begun to frame their cooperation around shared transport networks. The India-Iran-Armenia trilateral dialogue, launched in recent years, is slowly moving from concept to structure.
Trilateral Dialogue On Connectivity
In September 2025, their third round of talks took place in Tehran, focusing squarely on regional connectivity and strengthening cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
At the heart of the meeting was the emphasis on strengthening transport and trade links. All three sides underlined the importance of advancing projects like the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a long-term initiative connecting India with Russia and Europe through Iran, as well as Armenia’s ‘Crossroads of Peace’ project.
These projects are viewed as crucial for enhancing trade, improving access routes, and generating new opportunities for economic growth across Eurasia.
The discussions also touched on broader areas, including trade, finance, and agriculture. Officials from Iran’s ports and maritime organisation, railways, central bank, and agriculture ministry joined the meeting, underlining the intent to move beyond general diplomatic exchanges and toward concrete sectoral agreements.
This round of talks carried added weight. It was the first structured consultation between India and Iran since the conflict in June involving the US, Israel, and Iran.
Against this backdrop, the trilateral meeting signals more than just routine diplomacy. It points to a growing alignment among the three countries, one that could reshape the Eurasian connectivity landscape.
If these projects materialize, they could give the three countries greater strategic leverage in a region often characterized by competition over trade corridors and energy routes.
According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the next round of trilateral consultations is scheduled to take place in Armenia in 2026.
A New Route Through the Caucasus
‘INSTC’ and ‘Crossroads of Peace’, together, are designed to connect India with Central Asia, Russia, and Europe through Iran and the Caucasus.
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INSTC: A Dormant Corridor Comes Back to Life
The International North-South Transport Corridor, or INSTC, was first proposed in 2000 as a bold alternative route for trade between India and Russia via Iran, bypassing the Suez Canal. Additionally, India would gain direct access to Central Asia and Eurasia, eliminating the need for routes through Pakistan.
The plan was simple in concept but ambitious in scale. It was envisioned as a 7,200-kilometre chain of sea, rail, and road routes stretching from the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, across Iran and the Caspian Sea, and onward to northern Europe via Russia’s St. Petersburg.
Even though more countries, such as Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkiye, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Belarus, Oman, and Syria, signed on, progress remained slow. Bulgaria later joined as an observer, but momentum was missing.
Yet the corridor stalled for nearly two decades. Poor rail connectivity in Iran, limited return cargo, and complex procedures at multiple borders slowed progress and kept the project from taking off.
That is now changing. The INSTC is being pushed forward again, largely because it offers a faster and cheaper option than the Suez Canal for trade between India and Europe. It also strengthens connectivity with Central Asia, a region whose economic and strategic values have only grown in recent years.
On 7 July 2022, Russian company RZD Logistics announced that it had successfully completed its first transport of goods to India via the INSTC. This statement was also confirmed by Iranian and Indian trade companies.
The most critical missing piece lies in northern Iran. In February 2025, Iran’s Minister of Road and Urban Development, Farzaneh Sadegh, and Russia’s Transport Minister, Roman Starovoyt, signed a new ‘Transit Roadmap’ in Tehran.
The centerpiece of this plan is the Rasht (Iran) – Astara (Azerbaijan) railway, a 162-kilometer stretch in northern Iran, long described as ‘the missing link’ of the INSTC.
Once completed, this line will tie Iran’s rail network directly to Azerbaijan and Russia. It could open uninterrupted access from Mumbai to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It will also provide Iran with direct access to Europe, eliminating the need to rely on routes through Turkiye.
Currently, the Astara terminal on the Iran-Azerbaijan border handles less than a million tons of cargo annually, but expansion plans are underway. Experts see the railway as a potential game changer for Iran, Russia, and Azerbaijan, opening up new trade flows across the wider region.
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Armenia’s ‘Crossroads of Peace’
For Armenia, the trilateral dialogue is a chance to put forward its own vision. At the recent India-Iran-Armenia consultations, Yerevan presented its regional connectivity plan known as the ‘Crossroads of Peace’.
The proposal is designed to link Armenia with Turkiye, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Georgia. At its core, it envisions transport routes that connect the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea.
The plan also includes developing key infrastructure, such as roads, railways, pipelines, power lines, and cables, all designed to enhance the flow of goods, energy, and people across the region.
One of the ideas Armenia has been promoting is a trade corridor that would run from Mumbai to Varna, Bulgaria, via the Black Sea. This route would allow Armenia to bypass Azerbaijan, with which it has long-standing disputes.
The idea also builds on Iran’s earlier concept of the Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor, first proposed in 2016. Unlike the northern routes through Russia or Central Asia, this corridor would offer an alternative passage to Europe. Armenia’s embassy in India has argued that including Chabahar port in the INSTC would make the route more practical for the Mumbai-Varna link.
The initiative also has echoes of history. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Armenian merchants based in Isfahan played a central role in the silk trade between India, Persia, and Europe. They played a central role in facilitating the exchange of silk, textiles, precious stones, and luxury goods between India, Persia, and Europe.
Today, Armenia frames the ‘Crossroads of Peace’ initiative as a way to open its territory to regional trade and transit, on the condition that all countries involved respect each other’s sovereignty. This is also meant to counter accusations from its traditional rivals, Turkiye and Azerbaijan, that Armenia seeks to isolate itself rather than integrate.
For India, the founding member of INSTC, the initiative carries strategic weight. A stable and connected South Caucasus offers New Delhi another reliable route to Europe and Moscow, complementing its broader connectivity ambitions. Armenia formally joined the INSTC network in 2002.
Armenia’s location between the Caspian and Black Seas provides India with a way around long-standing hurdles, such as Pakistan’s refusal to open its airspace.
The partnership also creates access for Armenia to wider markets and the chance to establish itself as a key transit hub in Eurasian. It is a practical route for India to bypass blockages and expand its economic reach into the Caucasus and beyond. Iran also stands to gain as its position at the center of these routes could boost both trade and transit revenues.
Chabahar: India’s Golden Gateway
Any discussion of Indian connectivity projects inevitably comes back to Chabahar port. Located on Iran’s south-eastern coast, the port offers India a direct sea-land route to Central Asia and Afghanistan.
Chabahar’s location makes it a natural candidate for a regional transhipment hub. Its 16-meter draft can handle large vessels, and it sits close to some of the world’s busiest trade routes, particularly the Asia-Europe and Asia-Asia corridors that carry heavy cargo traffic.
India has been steadily developing Chabahar since 2018. Most recently, in May 2024, India Ports Global Ltd signed a 10-year agreement with Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation to operate the Shahid Beheshti terminal.
For New Delhi, the port serves as a strategic shortcut to Eurasia and the Central Asian republics, while also providing Afghanistan and other landlocked states with direct access to the Indian Ocean.
But there is a problem now. In September 2025, Washington scrapped the sanctions waiver that had allowed India to operate at Chabahar without penalty, and tightened pressure on Tehran under its ‘maximum pressure’ policy. Starting September 29, Indian firms and individuals associated with the project will face the risk of US sanctions under the Iran Freedom and Counter Proliferation Act.
For India, this complicates what had been its most reliable pathway to the heart of Eurasia. Losing the waiver could complicate India’s ambitions for regional trade and the broader INSTC project.
Shaping Eurasia’s Trade Map
The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) was designed to move goods from Mumbai to Iran’s Shahid Beheshti Port at Chabahar by sea, then onward by road to Bandar-e-Anzali on the Caspian coast. From there, shipments would cross the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan in Russia and continue by rail deeper into Russia and further into Europe.
For India, this trilateral effort is not only about moving goods more efficiently. It is also a way of asserting strategic independence and offering an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The grouping reflects overlapping interests that go beyond economics.
Iran’s position as a key energy hub, Armenia’s role as a bridge to the Caucasus, and India’s ambitions as a rising power all converge in a bid to build stability while also creating practical benefits for each partner.
The partnership widens access to energy, expands its reach into Eurasia, and strengthens ties with countries that share an interest in avoiding overdependence on any single great power. It offers both diversification and leverage simultaneously, as regional competition intensifies.
The India-Iran-Armenia dialogue is more than a plan for new transport routes. It is the creation of new channels of influence.
- Shubhangi Palve is a defense and aerospace journalist. Before joining the EurAsian Times, she worked for ET Prime. She has over 15 years of extensive experience in the media industry, spanning print, electronic, and online domains.
- Contact the author at shubhapalve (at) gmail.com
