Revision summary
Sanctions after the JCPOA crisis cut India’s Iranian oil and complicated Chabahar contractors. INSTC is a map still waiting on regional stability. I2U2 and Israel ties sit poorly with Tehran’s regional map. Afghanistan 2021 is both a shared file and a source of different bets. The challenge is to keep a working corridor without a sanctions-proof or all-weather pact.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
India and Iran share civilisational contact, a stake in Afghanistan, and the Chabahar–INSTC connectivity idea. The relationship is repeatedly strained by United States sanctions, energy payment problems, Israel policy, and slow project delivery. Challenges are structural, not only diplomatic mood.
Body
Sanctions and energy
- Iran was a major crude supplier to India. US withdrawal from the JCPOA and secondary sanctions cut that trade for long stretches.
- Payment, insurance, and shipping became the daily challenge. Rupee and third-country mechanisms were incomplete substitutes.
- After 2022 India also had discounted Russian oil, which further reduced Iran’s share.
Connectivity that moves slowly
- Chabahar is the flagship. It competes with time, with Gwadar’s China–Pakistan story, and with US sanctions risk for firms.
- INSTC needs Russian, Iranian, and Caucasian stability. War in Ukraine and Caucasus shocks delay a corridor sold as geopolitics.
Regional politics
- India deepened ties with Israel, the UAE, and the United States, including I2U2, while Iran remains in a hostile set toward Israel and often toward Washington.
- Afghanistan after August 2021 is a shared interest against some militant groups and a divergence on who holds legitimate power.
- Iran–Saudi and Iran–Gulf cycles pull Indian labour, energy, and Hajj-related diplomacy in two directions.
Domestic and identity files
- Shia pilgrimage, Chabahar workers, and occasional statements on Kashmir or on minorities can irritate either capital.
- Neither side treats the other as an enemy. Neither can offer a full strategic cover against the other’s main threat.
Reading
- Keohane’s complex interdependence is thin here because finance and insurance are weaponised by a third State.
- Pragmatic foreign policy keeps Chabahar alive as a hedge. It has not produced a sanctions-proof partnership.
Flow diagram
Conclusion
India–Iran challenges are US sanctions on energy and firms, slow corridors, and India’s simultaneous West Asia partnerships with Iran’s rivals. The relationship survives as a limited connectivity and regional-security file, not as an all-weather alliance.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Discuss the major drivers of India's interests in Africa
Next question on this syllabus topic (2023 · Q8(c)). View answer →
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Has India abandoned Iran for Israel?
No. India runs both relationships. The challenge is that Tehran treats the Israel–US set as a threat, so parallelism has a ceiling.
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Why keep Chabahar if sanctions hurt?
It is India’s main publicly built option for a western land-sea route to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Abandoning it would leave only Pakistan-blocked geography.
Same topic · past papers
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2026 · Q3(b) · PSIR GS 2 · 15 marks
Theories of international relations which claim objectivity inevitably harbour subjective biases. Elucidate
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