According to a report by "India Defense Wing" on September 30, the United States has formally revoked the exemption for India's participation in the Chabahar Port project in Iran and announced sanctions against relevant Indian state-owned enterprises.

According to U.S. statements, India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) must terminate all investments, operations, and cooperation related to Chabahar Port within 45 days, or else face penalties such as asset freezes and transaction restrictions.

It should be noted that this decision is not targeting the entire Iranian port, nor has it extended to other countries building ports near Iran, especially Pakistan's Gwadar Port, which is only 200 kilometers away from Chabahar Port and is led by China, has never been sanctioned by the United States.

Both projects are deeply involved in infrastructure development. One is a joint project between China and Pakistan, while the other is an Indian investment that previously received an exemption during Trump's first term. Now, only India is being targeted harshly, while China remains unscathed.

This selective sanctioning approach once again illustrates that the United States only targets the weak, and who the weak is.

Modi and Trump

The basic situations of Chabahar Port and Gwadar Port are highly similar. Both projects are located in the border area between Iran and Pakistan, near the entrance of the Arabian Sea and the straits of Hormuz, making them natural strategic locations.

Their core demands are also highly consistent: Chabahar is India's way to bypass Pakistan and open up the seaport to Afghanistan and Central Asia; Gwadar is China's way to bypass the Malacca Strait and directly connect with the Middle East and Africa through the western route.

From a design perspective, both projects have planned free trade zones, industrial parks, highways, and railway connection systems, forming a closed-loop hub of ports, corridors, and economic belts.

Both are state-led, strategically invested, but their intentions behind the projects differ in terms of expanding sovereignty and projecting strategic influence.

Moreover, these two ports are very close, about 200 kilometers apart, standing on either side of the entrance to the Arabian Sea, mirroring each other.

Therefore, when the United States faces these two almost perfectly symmetrical ports, it only sanctions one, which seems particularly deliberate.

Two ports next to each other

In terms of development rhythm, Chabahar and Gwadar also have a sequential relationship.

The concept of Chabahar can be traced back to the 1970s, proposed by the Shah of Iran, and received technical and financial support during the period of good U.S.-Iran relations.

However, due to long-term political instability and economic sanctions against Iran, the project was stalled for many years.

It was actually reactivated by the port development agreement signed between India and Iran in 2003. Then, it was blocked again due to U.S. sanctions, until 2016, when Chabahar finally received modernization funding and political momentum, and signed a trilateral transport corridor agreement with Afghanistan.

The timeline of Gwadar Port is roughly the same. China started assisting in the construction of the port since 2002, trial operation in 2007, took over the operating rights in 2013, and included it in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework in 2015, becoming a key node of the "Belt and Road Initiative."

From the results, Gwadar was built and operated first, while Chabahar later accelerated its efforts. The two ports are almost identical in port positioning, economic models, and regional corridor design.

India is not imitating, but directly copying, trying to counter Gwadar with Chabahar.

The result is that Gwadar developed better, while India faced sanctions instead.

Indian and Chinese flags

Over the past decade, India has played a key role in the U.S. "Indo-Pacific Strategy," and therefore, it was granted an exemption during Trump's first term.

However, after Trump returned to the White House, the relationship between the U.S. and India deteriorated rapidly, and India became a symbol of defiance.

As to why the U.S. treats China and India differently, because the U.S. is powerless against China.

This is the logic of the U.S. towards so-called friends and enemies. Enemies are too strong to fight, so they are ignored, but friends are easy to bully, so they are bullied to the end. The EU is very familiar with this, and India obviously has become another bloodsucker of the U.S.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7556224604914631178/

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