NEW DELHI: Navigating a high-stakes diplomatic tightrope with US President Donald Trump’s latest trade offensive threatens to collide with New Delhi’s long-term strategic interests in Iran, New Delhi said it remains in touch with Washington.
“As you are aware, on 28 October 2025, the US Department of Treasury had issued a letter outlining the guidance on the conditional sanctions waiver valid till 26 April 2026. We remain engaged with the US side in working out this arrangement,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said while answering questions on the future of the Chabahar Port, just days after the White House announced a sweeping 25% tariff on any nation doing business with the Islamic Republic.
The core of the Indian concern now lies in a time-bound sanctions waiver for the strategically vital Chabahar Port. While the US Department of the Treasury issued guidance on a conditional waiver on October 28, 2025, that protection is set to expire on April 26, 2026.
The Chabahar port is India’s gateway to landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan. In 2024, India solidified its presence by signing a landmark 10-year agreement to operate the terminal, moving away from precarious annual renewals that had hampered the project for years.
However, the diplomatic calculations became more complex on January 12, when President Trump declared on social media that a 25% tariff would be applied to any and all business being done with the US by countries trading with Iran.
For India, the trade stakes are clear. The bilateral trade with Iran currently stands at $1.6 billion, with Indian exports—largely rice and pharmaceuticals—accounting for $1.2 billion of that total.
New Delhi is leaning on the “long-standing partnership” it shares with Tehran. India has historically used Chabahar for humanitarian ends, such as shipping 20,000 tonnes of wheat aid to Afghanistan in 2023 and supplying environmentally friendly pesticides to Iran in 2021. India is also stepping up the ties with Afghanistan as New Delhi works on maintaining its regional influence despite the wider sanctions regime.
As the April 2026 deadline nears, India’s challenge will be to convince Trump administration that Chabahar is not an aberration in the sanctions regime, but a vital tool for regional stability and a necessary alternative for Afghanistan.