Foreign Minister S Jaishankar with Iranian leader Jawad Zarif in Tehraon on Tuesday. (Twitter / S Jaishankar)
Two visits in less than a week send a message of the importance of the India-Iran relationship that has been affected recently by US sanctions and is also caught in the crossfire of deteriorating ties between India and China.
- CNN-News18 New Delhi
- Last update: September 8, 2020 5:51 PM IST
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Foreign Minister S Jaishankar held talks with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif in Tehran on Tuesday. The minister made a transit from Tehran as he headed to Moscow for the meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The visit comes just days after Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Brigadier General Amir Hatami, in Tehran. Two consecutive visits in less than a week send a clear message of the importance of the India-Iran relationship which has been affected recently by the sanctions imposed by the United States and which is also caught in the crossfire of deteriorating ties. between India and China due to the outbursts on the Royal Line of Control (LAC) in Ladakh.
More recently, there was a controversy over the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project in Iran with reports suggesting that the country had expelled India. Denying these reports, Foreign Ministry (MEA) spokesman Anurag Srivastava at a press conference in July said: “Our ambassador was invited by the deputy minister and head of Iranian railways, Saeed Rasouli, to a meeting to review the cooperation under the project and had a good meeting. Ongoing cooperation was reviewed during that meeting and I would like to draw your attention particularly to the statement by Iran’s Deputy Minister and Head of Railways, who said vested interests were behind the reports that Iran has excluded India from this project. ” .
There were rumors that Iran acted as India cannot immediately finance the project due to US sanctions and a desperate Tehran was looking to China to rescue it. This certainly would not sit well with India, considering that it has made a concerted effort to be part of the Chabahar port and the Americans also exempted it from their sanctions. After Pakistan, a new Chinese impulse in the Indian neighborhood is also a concern for New Delhi.
The importance of the port of Chabahar is immense. It gives India a route to Afghanistan while bypassing Pakistan. For example, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Chabahar route was used to send a 75,000 ton supply of wheat and essential medicines to Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project is specifically important as it “forms part of the transit and transport corridor in a trilateral agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan,” according to the memorandum of understanding signed between IRCON and Construction, Development of Transport. and Infrastructure Company (CDTIC) of Iran.
The 2018 India-Iran joint statement read: “With a view to fully utilizing the potential of the Chabahar port and its connectivity with Afghanistan and Central Asia, India conveyed its readiness to support the development of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway line. IRCON, India and CDTIC, Iran, who are involved in discussions, were tasked with finalizing the technical parameters and financing options for the project within a specified time frame. “
However, discomfort was already brewing in the relationship due to US economic sanctions against Iran after withdrawing from the nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). This forced India to completely reduce its import of oil from Iran in May 2019.
Iran had previously written to the United Nations and the leaders of several countries, including India, to pressure the United States to lift sanctions to help it fight the pandemic. When asked about India’s response, high-level government sources said that lifting the sanctions is a separate matter, making it unclear which side India was on.
Looking at this situation, it was imperative that both parties begin to compromise to resolve the issues. After their meeting, Singh tweeted to say: “I had a very fruitful meeting with the Iranian defense minister, Brigadier General Amir Hatami in Tehran. We discuss regional security issues, including Afghanistan, and bilateral cooperation issues. “
Meanwhile, Jaishankar in a tweet said he had a “productive meeting” where the two sides discussed “strengthening our bilateral cooperation and reviewing regional development.”
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