NEW DELHI: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, along with senior officials from the National Security Council Secretariat, met with Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), in Tehran on Monday.
The duo mulled bilateral trading in the local currencies, besides discussing economic, security and political issues. They also shared mutual concerns over international events. The visit comes days after Iranian Defence Minister Mohammad Reza Gharaei Ashtiani called on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi.
India and Iran share close economic and diplomatic ties and both have been propagating the use of Chabahar Port for trade and also the International North-South Transit Corridor. Doval’s visit to Iran comes ahead of a foreign ministerial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa this week. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amirabdollahian are likely to attend the summit.
Iran is set to formally become a member of the SCO in July during the SCO Summit. Iran on March 17 strongly pitched for faster implementation of the Chabahar Port as well as the use of the facility by India to send various shipments saying the key transit hub will benefit both countries.
Iranian Ambassador to India Iraj Elahi also sought the resumption of the export of crude oil to India – which is under U.S. sanctions. India stopped procurement of crude oil from Iran after the U.S. did not continue with sanction waivers to India and several other countries.
“We believe that India is and was strong and powerful to stand against the pressure of the West... India is a rising power. India has a powerful economy. So India could easily resist pressure from the US and the West,” Iraj Elahi, the Iranian envoy had said in the month of March this year.