India plans to send seven shipments of wheat to Afghanistan through Chabahar by the end of January. A first shipment arrived last week from India's western Kandla port, after years of political wrangling with Pakistan, government officials in Delhi and Kabul said.

India is in talks with Iran to begin interim operations at a port in southeast Iran, officials say, proceeding cautiously on developing the facility at a time when the Trump administration has laid an aggressive new approach toward Tehran.

India has committed $500 million to the Chabahar port that it is building as a way to bypass Pakistan and crack open a trade and transport route to landlocked Afghanistan, as well as the resource-rich countries of central Asia.