EAM S Jaishankar to visit Iran, could meet his counterpart Javad Zarif

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will make a stopover in Iran this week as part of his key Moscow visit. During the Iran stopover, he could meet his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, details of which are still being decided. Javad Zarif had visited India earlier in 2020 to be part of Raisina Dialogue.

The EAM will be visiting Moscow for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meet. India, Pakistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are part of the SCO grouping. Iran is an observer member of the grouping.

This will be the second time any top Indian minister is visiting Iran within a week. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had visited Iran over the weekend while coming from Russia and met with Iran's Defence Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami.

During Rajnath Singh's visit, Afghanistan and regional security were discussed in over one hour long bilateral. The high-level visits by India to Iran are been considered as a major reach out by New Delhi to a country it considers part of its extended neighbourhood.

Iran plays an important role in India's connectivity project via Chabahar port that provides it link to Afghanistan and wider Central Asian region.