Strike at Iranian Bandar Anzali rocks Indo-Russian dream of USD 100 billion trade by 2030: experts

MOSCOW: (Mar 22) 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 USD 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 some other structures in Bandar Anzali on the Caspian Sea coast on March 18, local media reports said.