Foreign Minister S Jaishankar will stop in Tehran to meet his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif on Tuesday afternoon on his way to Russia for a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization ( OCS), people familiar with the events said Monday.
Jaishankar will be the second high-ranking Indian minister to visit Iran in less than a week, and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh made a stopover in Tehran on Sunday to talk to his Iranian counterpart, Brigadier General Amir Hatami, who is focused on bilateral cooperation and regional security issues.
The two foreign ministers are expected to meet Tuesday afternoon to review bilateral relations and the regional situation, the people quoted above said on condition of anonymity. There was no official news about the stop in Tehran from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Back-to-back visits to Tehran by Indian cabinet ministers come shortly after reports that China and Iran are close to an agreement for a 25-year strategic partnership on trade, politics and security. They also come at a time when India is trying to work more closely with Iran to increase the economic viability of the strategic port of Chabahar.
The evolution of the situation in Afghanistan, where a dialogue between the Afghans is scheduled to begin, is also expected to figure in the talks between Jaishankar and Zarif.
Jaishankar last visited Iran in December 2019 and had spoken with Zarif in April. This will be his first visit abroad since ministers’ travel abroad was restricted by the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to participating in the SCO Foreign Ministers meeting in Moscow on September 10, Jaishankar is expected to hold bilateral meetings with some counterparts.
However, most of the attention will be focused on his planned meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Jaishankar said in an online event on Monday that his position for this meeting will be based on certain principles, including how peace and tranquility on the border with China over the past 30 years has allowed the rest of the bilateral relationship to progress.
He also said that the confrontation on the Line of Royal Control (LAC) cannot be disassociated from the general bilateral relationship.
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