New Delhi, August 2: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is likely to represent India at the swearing-in ceremony of newly elected Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran on August 5, people familiar with the development said on Monday.
Raisi, a hardliner and known to be close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, won the presidential election in June by a landslide. India has already accepted an invitation by Iran for the event, which is likely to be attended by leaders and representatives of a number of countries.
Last month, the external affairs minister called on President-elect Raisi during a stopover at the Iranian capital on his way to Russia. Jaishankar also held extensive talks with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif in Tehran covering a range of key issues including the fast-evolving situation in Afghanistan. His visit to Iran coincided with Iran’s hosting of an intra-Afghan dialogue in the country.
“External Affairs Minister Jaishankar is scheduled to pay a brief visit to Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Raisi,” said one of the persons cited above. Iran has been a key country for India in the Gulf region.
The two sides have been jointly focusing on improving connectivity between South East Asia and Central Asia. At a connectivity conference in Tashkent last month, Jaishankar projected Iran’s Chabahar Port as a key regional transit hub. Located in the Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich Iran’s southern coast, the Chabahar port is being developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan to boost connectivity and trade ties.
//vdo (function(v,d,o,ai){ai=d.createElement('script');ai.defer=true;ai.async=true;ai.src=v.location.protocol+o;d.head.appendChild(ai);})(window, document, '//a.vdo.ai/core/latestly/vdo.ai.js');
//colombai try{ (function() { var cads = document.createElement("script"); cads.async = true; cads.type = "text/javascript"; cads.src = "https://static.clmbtech.com/ase/80185/3040/c1.js"; var node = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; node.parentNode.insertBefore(cads, node); })(); }catch(e){}
} });