Jaishankar meets Iran's president, discusses Chabahar Port Development Plan, trade in local currencies

India’s External Affairs Minister met with Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi and both the leaders discussed the need to strengthening international trade, especially through national currencies, maintaining security of shipping in international waters among a host of other things. Jaishankar, who is on a two-day visit to Iran, talked about India’s interest in concluding a comprehensive and long-term cooperation agreement with Iran and also emphasised the country’s complete adherence to its commitments in the development of Chabahar Port project as well as comprehensive development of cooperation with Iran. During the meeting, Raisi emphasised on speeding up implementation of Iran-India agreements and stressed on the need to follow up and accelerate the implementation of the agreements between Iran and India, including the Chabahar Port Development Plan, and the need to compensate for the delay in the implementation of commitments. Raisi also referred to the deep-rooted relations between the Iran and India, and the efforts to fulfil the will of the high officials of the two countries in order to develop and improve the level of relations in various political, economic, science and technology, transportation and energy sectors. EAM Jaishankar also termed the attacks on ships in the vicinity of India as a matter of “grave concern” to the international community and said such threats have a direct bearing on India’s energy and economic interest as he underlined that this “fraught situation” is not to the benefit of any party. Addressing a joint press statement after wide-ranging talks with Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian, Jaishankar said, “There has also recently been a perceptible increase in threats to the safety of maritime commercial traffic in this important part of the Indian Ocean.” The minister stressed that it is important that this issue be “speedily addressed”, in an apparent reference to the targeting of merchant vessels in the Red Sea – one of the busiest trade routes – by Iranian-backed Yemen’s Houthi rebels amid the Israel-Hamas war. “We have even seen some attacks in the vicinity of India. This is a matter of great concern to the international community. Obviously, it also has a direct bearing on India’s energy and economic interests. This fraught situation is not to the benefit of any party and this must be clearly recognised,” Jaishankar said. With inputs from agencies