NEW DELHI: In a likely beefing up of India's ambitions in Afghanistan and Central Asia, Japan is reported to be considering partnering India in developing the strategically located Chabahar port project in Iran, which is seen as a counterweight to China's presence at Gwadar in Pakistan's Balochistan province.PM Narendra Modi is visiting Iran later this month and both countries are hoping to sign a commercial contract for the Chabahar port as well as modalities for India extending a $150 million line of credit for the project. The port located in southeastern Iran is expected to act as a gateway for India not just to Afghanistan but to the whole of Central Asia, allowing India to sidestep Pakistan.While diplomatic sources here said "nothing concrete had been decided" yet, this is not the first time Tokyo is reported to have shown interest in Chabahar. Its ambassador to Iran Koji Haneda had last year, before the international sanctions on Iran were lifted, had visited the port city on the Gulf of Oman and spoken about how the project could turn into a global trade hub.Apart from looking at developing the port jointly with India, Japan is also said to be considering building an industrial complex in Chabahar. In what will be a first in almost 38 years, Japan PM Shinzo Abe is expected to visit Iran in August this year. The visit is likely to see Japan announcing investments into some major infrastructure projects in Iran.An India-Japan partnership on developing the Chabahar port and industrial complex, according to strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney, will be a win-win initiative for all parties, including Iran."Chabahar has greater potential than Gwadar to emerge as a key shipping hub. An India-Japan partnership on Chabahar will help to counter the strategic significance of the expanding Chinese footprint in Gwadar," he says.In the face of a renewed talk about strategic encirclement of India by China, as it gets operational control of Gwadar port and possibly also of Hambantota in the future, any involvement of Japan, an important strategic partner, in Chabahar will only reinforce India's own belief in the project. There are few strategic partners with which India shares a broader convergence of political, economic and strategic goals than Japan.In fact, any likely partnership between India and Japan on Chabahar could also be explained by the joint statement issued by the two countries after the visit of Abe last year in December. It said that Modi and Abe had decided to develop and strengthen "reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructures that augment connectivity within India and between India and other countries in the region".The partnership with Japan may be significant also in the context of reports that China itself is looking to park itself in Chabahar by building an industrial town there.India is now hoping to soon sign a draft agreement which envisions trilateral cooperation for providing alternative access to seas to Afghanistan through Chabahar and facilitate its own trade with Afghanistan. "When the Agreement comes into force it will significantly enhance utilization of Chabahar Port, contribute to economic growth of Afghanistan, and facilitate better regional connectivity, including between India and connections to Afghanistan and Central Asia," the government said last month.