Iran has completed the approvals to allocate Kazakhstan a land plot at Shahid Rajaee port in Bandar Abbas for a dedicated logistics facility, Kazakhstan's prime minister's office said after talks in Astana on 19 June between deputy prime minister Serik Zhumangarin and an Iranian delegation led by roads and urban development minister Farzaneh Sadegh. The plot transfers once remaining procedures are done. It builds on a memorandum signed in April 2025 under which Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization committed the land and Kazakhstan was to file a commercial proposal.
The talks went wider than one plot. Iran offered Kazakhstan operating access at Chabahar, its deep-water port on the Gulf of Oman, whose Chabahar-Zahedan rail link is reported over 90% complete and due to open in the coming months. Kazakhstan, in turn, signaled it would consider opening berths at its Caspian ports of Aktau and Kuryk to Iranian companies. Zhumangarin proposed a roadmap to lift annual capacity on the corridor toward 20 million tonnes. Freight on the International North-South Transport Corridor rose 12% in 2025 to 3.5 million tonnes, and rail freight between Kazakhstan and Iran jumped 69%.
The corridor Kazakhstan is buying into runs through Bandar Abbas, on the Strait of Hormuz, the same chokepoint Iran threatened to close this weekend.
The logic is the prize landlocked Central Asia has pursued for a generation: a route to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean that does not run north through Russia or east through China. A Kazakh terminal at Bandar Abbas, paired with access at Chabahar, would give Astana its own door to the southern seas. Bilateral trade with Iran grew 26.4% in 2025 to $430 million, with a stated goal of $3 billion under the Iran-EAEU free trade arrangement.
The timing is the catch, and it is sharp. Shahid Rajaee sits inside the Bandar Abbas complex on the Strait of Hormuz, the very waterway Iran threatened to close again this weekend. The southern corridor's promise and its central risk are the same 50 kilometers of water. A sanctions-free, stable Iran makes this the best diversification Central Asia could ask for. An Iran that can shut the strait whenever Lebanon flares makes the corridor only as reliable as the peace now being negotiated at the Burgenstock. Kazakhstan is buying the door and the lock together.