Лев и дракон: новый этап китайско-иранского стратегического партнёрства

10. The length of the railway linking China’s Kashgar city with Afghanistan’s Herat city would be 1,972 km. The length of the Tajik section of this railway, running from the Nizhny Panj to the border with Kyrgyzstan was planned to be 296 km. Iran expressed its readiness to finance the Kyrgyz section of the railway.

11. China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC).

12. The Kyrgyzstan section of the line would cover 268.4 km; China’s section would span 165 km. The cargo transit capacity of the line was expected to be approximately 15,000 tons.

13. CREC is a Chinese construction company listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The major shareholder of the company is the state-owned China Railway Engineering Corporation. By revenue, CREC was the largest construction company in the world in the 2015 Engineering News-Record "Top 225 Global Contractors".

14. Chabahar plays a key role in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a 7,200 km (4,473 mi) freight route linking Mumbai to Moscow. For years, India has enthusiastically pushed for a project that aims to increase connectivity in Eurasia, in part because it believed it could help keep Iran outside the Chinese BRI and dampen any attempts at cooperation between Tehran and its main regional rival, Islamabad.

15. On the other side of the border, the pipeline will come into contact with the Pakistani port city of Gwadar. The pipeline will cost between US $ 1.5 billion and US $ 1.8 billion, or US $ 2 billion. Under the terms of the deal, 85% of the financing will be provided by a loan from China. The remaining 50 miles (80 km) from Gwadar to the Iranian border will be built by Pakistan.

16. After 9/11, India's political and economic influence in Afghanistan grew under the guise of U.S. security. However, after the February agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban in Doha, India's influence in the country is declining. India was not involved in the US-Taliban deal and does not play a significant role in the intra-Afghan peace process. After the withdrawal of the U.S., India's influence on the country will further diminish.