Addressing the sixth Caspian Sea Summit on Wednesday within the presence of leaders from Central Asia and Iran, Putin made particular reference to the INSTC that connects India with Russia throughout the shortest potential time. He described the undertaking, which is 7,200-kilometre-long, as a “transport artery from St Petersburg to ports in Iran and India”. INSTC goals to attach Caspian Sea area nations, together with Kazakhstan.
Earlier this month, Russia despatched consignments for India from St Petersburg by way of the Caspian port of Astrakhan and the Iranian Port of Anzali and from there to Bandar Abbas Port and thereafter to Western Indian ports to operationalise INSTC. The consignments are two 40 ft containers of wooden laminates weighing 41 tonnes. The overall journey will take lower than 25 days chopping the practically 40 days it presently takes to move items from Russia to India and vice-versa. Apart from decreasing time, INSTC is taken into account a viable possibility for Indo-Russian commerce amid present geo-political challenges.
