India Iran: Meeting of Foreign Secretary Kwatra and Foreign Minister of Iran in Tehran; talks on bilateral relations

The Ministry of External Affairs has said that bilateral relations between India and Iran were discussed in detail between Iran’s Foreign Minister and Foreign Secretary Kwatra. According to the statement issued after the meeting on Sunday, apart from issues related to Chabahar port, the situation in Western Asia (Middle East) was also discussed between India and Iran.

During high-level talks with the Foreign Minister of Iran, Foreign Secretary Quatra also discussed the situation arising out of the Hamas-Israel conflict. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, both sides agreed to further strengthen cooperation between India and Iran.

Many more connectivity projects, including the Chabahar port, were discussed during the meeting of Foreign Secretary Vinay Quatra and Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian in Tehran, Bagchi said. The two countries also shared their perspectives on current challenges.

Let us tell you that Vinay Kwatra’s visit to Tehran is very important. This is because his meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister took place amid violent conflict between Hamas and Israel. The conflict between the two sides has been going on for the last 50 days. Global concerns are also increasing due to the enmity between the two.

The Foreign Ministry said that in Tehran, Quatra also met Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari. Safaree also handles matters of economic diplomacy. Regarding the meeting of the two, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that talks were also held on giving concrete form to India’s participation in the development of Chabahar port. There was also discussion on ways to enhance comprehensive trade and investment relations between the two countries.

Let us tell you that Chabahar port is very important from the point of view of connectivity and promoting trade relations. India and Iran are developing it together. However, China also has its eyes on this. In fact, Chabahar is on the southern coast of energy-rich Iran, hence China, a country with expansionist policies, is looking to show its arrogance on this port of Sistan-Baluchistan province as well. The stances of Pakistan and China regarding this geographically sensitive place have often been discussed.

It is noteworthy that Foreign Minister S Jaishankar had visited Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan in the year 2021. He had projected Chabahar as a major regional route/transit hub. It was also mentioned in this connectivity conference that apart from India-Iran, the interests of Afghanistan and other regional powers are also linked to Chabahar port.