Iran for deeper bilateral ties with India

Explore Business Standard

Iran also stressed on the importance of the Chabahar Port and the energy security that it could provide vis-a-vis gas and oil.
"We have common interests and threats. This calls for more interactions, more talks and more consultations," Saeed Jalili, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, said here.
Underlining that Iran shares "very good" relations with India, Jalili, who met his Indian counterpart National Security Adviser Shivshakar Menon during his three-day official visit, said the leaders of both countries are committed to "deepen and expand" relations.
"Cooperation in security field, political field and economic field gives us opportunity to expand relations in cultural field also," he said.
He said the future of the relationship is "very good" and bilateral ties will grow.
Jalili, who is also the chief nuclear negotiator of Iran, said he had good talks with Menon.
"We had good cooperation and good discussion on our common threat. There are certain regional issues like organised crime, drug trafficking and terrorism," he said.
"There are common threats in the region like organised crime, terrorism and new elements like piracy. These are issues that call for cooperation" and provide for opportunities".
Asked if nuclear cooperation was part of the talks with Menon, he said, "We had talks about different fields. But nuclear issue was not part of discussion," he said, adding that Tehran believes nuclear issue is important.
To a query if India was facilitating their talks with P5+1 over the nuclear issue, he said, "Not particularly. We generally talk and consult them (India)". MORE
First Published: Aug 09 2010 | 5:16 PM IST