Armenia wants India to invest in a Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor to connect Indian traders with Russia and Europe that will bypass Azerbaijan, this according to the Indian The Economic Times.

The offer, according to the news site, was made last week by an Armenian team of senior government officials and experts visiting India with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan was visiting India.

The proposed corridor- running parallel to the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)-will connect Mumbai with Bandar Abbas in Iran and then Armenia and onward to Europe or Russia, bypassing Azerbaijan with whom India has lukewarm ties given its close links with Turkey and Pakistan.

The International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.  

The news site quotes Benyamin Poghosyan (Chairman of Yerevan-based Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies) as saying that the new “cold war” resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war has made any large-scale transit of cargo passing the Russia-Europe border too risky for international logistic and insurance companies.

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