US grants India six-month sanctions waiver to run Iran's Chabahar port

The US has granted India a six-month sanctions waiver to operate the Iranian port of Chabahar, India said on Thursday, boosting its efforts to enhance trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian countries bypassing Pakistan.

India signed a 10-year contract with Iran last year to develop and operate the port and this month stepped up its ties with Taliban-run Afghanistan by reopening its embassy in Kabul that was shut after the group seized power in 2021 following the withdrawal of US-led NATO forces.

The port on Iran's southeastern Gulf of Oman coast was initially planned with a rail link to Afghanistan for building the landlocked country's economy through trade and reducing Kabul's dependence on the Pakistani port of Karachi.

The waiver move followed word by US President Donald Trump this week that he wanted to reach a trade deal with India - signalling a thaw in relations that soured to their lowest point in decades after he doubled tariffs on Indian imports to 50 per cent as punishment for Indian purchases of Russian oil.

Indian refiners are now cutting Russian oil imports following Washington's imposition last week of sanctions on Moscow's top two crude exporters, Rosneft and Lukoil.

"I can confirm that we have been granted an exemption for a six-month period," Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a weekly news briefing, referring to the port.

He also said India was continuing talks with the Trump administration on a bilateral trade deal.

Washington had last month revoked the sanctions waiver for Chabahar, initially granted in 2018, as part of its effort to put "maximum pressure" on Iran to counter what it called the country's destabilising activities in support of its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

An Indian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US sanctions waiver had taken effect on Wednesday.