NSA Ajit Doval meets Iranian PM Raisi in Tehran

Tehran, May 03: India and Iran Tuesday vowed to take their relationship to a “new level” under a “new global order” with greater cooperation under bilateral as well as multilateral mechanisms at a time when Tehran has become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and plays a crucial role in Taliban-led Afghanistan.

 

 

This was decided during a meeting between Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in Tehran Tuesday. Doval was accompanied by India’s outgoing Ambassador to Iran Dharmendra Gaddam as well as the newly appointed envoy Rudra Gaurav Shresth.

 

 

 

“As two effective countries in the region, Iran and India can develop their cooperation to a new level to have an impact on the developments caused by the establishment of the new world order,” President Raisi told the Indian delegation according to a statement issued by the Office of the President of Iran. “In the heart of the changes taking place in the world, regional and international organizations, especially the Shanghai and BRICS organizations, due to their power and resources, can be very effective,” the President said, adding that the geopolitics of the world is “changing” giving shape to a different global order. NSA Doval pushed for the deepening and expansion of ties between India and Iran while he discussed issues concerning the Russia-Ukraine war and the situation in Afghanistan with the Iranian President. Doval had met his Iranian counterpart Ali Shamkhani and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian where issues concerning the resumption of Rupee-Rial trade and crude oil purchase were discussed. Iran has asked India to resume oil purchases from Tehran by skirting the American sanctions as it did in the case of Russian crude even as Moscow has come under UN-led as well as Western sanctions for the Ukraine war. India had brought oil imports from Iran to nil in May 2019 owing to sanctions imposed on them by then-US President Donald Trump. Amirabdollahian will be visiting India later this week for the SCO Foreign Ministers Meeting taking place in Goa on May 4-5. Iran will be participating in the meeting as a full-fledged member of SCO for the first time under India’s presidency. Last year President Raisi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the margins of the SCO in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

 

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Iranian Defence Minister Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Gharaei Ashtiani was also in India last week for the SCO Defence Ministers conference where he held a bilateral meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. During the meeting, Iran sought enhanced defence and security ties with India and exchanged views on regional security issues, including peace and stability in Afghanistan as well as development of the International North-South Transport corridor to ease logistic problems to Afghanistan and other countries in Central Asia.