With Chabahar in focus, Iran Deputy FM for economics Mehdi on India visit
Mehdi Safari
With key focus on the Chabahar port project and connectivity, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari is on a 2-day India visit starting Monday. The visit comes even as focus is on increasing economic engagement between the twocountries. It is not known so far that will the issue of import of Iranian oil will be discussed during talks in Delhi. India is currently not buying crude oil from Iran after American sanction in 2019 announced by then US President Trump.
A few weeks ago, Indian foreign minister Dr S Jaishankar made an interesting comment on sanctions on Iran oil vis a vis India importing oil from Russia. Speaking at an event in Slovakia, he said, "If countries in Europe, the west and the US are so concerned why don't they allow Iranian, and Venezuelan oil to come into the market. I mean they have squeezed every other source of oil we have and then say oky guys you should not go into the market and get the best oil for your people. I don't think that is fair".
On the connectivity front, India is developing the firstphase of Shahid Beheshti Port at Chabahar. The capacity of the port will reach 8.5 MT at the end of the first phase. During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Tehran in May 2016, the contract on the Shahid Beheshti port of Chabahar was signed which comprises of investment of $85 million for procuring equipment of the port. The port has been key to India's connectivity to Afghanistan and central Asia. In the past India has sent wheat to Afghanistan via the port.
Important to know, Mehdi Safari has proposed use of single currency for Shanghai cooperation organization or SCO member states. Tehran sent letter to the grouping suggesting this measure so at to break US Dollar's hegemony. Iran is expected to soon become a full member of the grouping and got a unanimous support at last year's SCO Summit for its bid.
This is the secnd high-level visit from the Iranian foreign ministry in last 15 days to India. The visit of Deputy FM Mehdi comes even as last week saw a 4-day visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian to India in which he held talks with PM Modi, EAM Jaishankar and NSA Doval in Delhi with visits to Mumbai and Hyderabad as well.
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