MOSCOW: The US-Israeli missile attack on Iran’s Bandar Anzali, a key transit hub on the INSTC linking Mumbai with St Petersburg, is a major blow to the Indo-Russian ambition of boosting bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030 via the crucial corridor, experts said Saturday.The 7,200-kilometre long multi-modal International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) links Mumbai to St Petersburg via Iran, bypassing the Suez Canal, to boost trade between Asia and Europe. The Israeli-American joint strike destroyed the Customs House and other structures in Bandar Anzali on the Caspian Sea coast on March 18, local media reports said.“This route bypassing Suez canal was considered safe, but now due to higher risks caused by the Israeli-American strikes, the rates of insurance and freight will shoot up, which will have a negative impact on Russia and other CIS countries interested in using it,” Professor Renat Karamurzov of Institute of Asia, Africa Studies at the Moscow State University said.“This corridor is extremely important for our bilateral relations with India as it significantly cuts transit time from 25-30 days to seven days from Moscow to Mumbai,” Russian political analyst Sergei Strokan said during a television discussion. According to Russian deputy PM, Vitaly Saveliyev, over 7.5 million tonnes of cargo was transported through the trans-Caspian route by the end of 2025. pti
