New Delhi - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in
New Delhi Tuesday to confer with the Indian leadership on major
energy projects including finalizing a 7.5 billion dollar gas
pipeline project despite opposition from the United States.
The Iranian leader was greeted at the New Delhi airport by India's
junior Foreign Minister E Ahamed and will be in the city for a five-
hour visit which will wrap up a regional tour that included Pakistan
and Sri Lanka.
Ahmadinejad is on paying the first visit by an Iranian head of
state in five years and was scheduled to call on his counterpart
Pratibha Patil and hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
later Tuesday.
Ahmadinejad's brief visit to India comes against the backdrop of a
chill in bilateral relations over the past two years since India
sided with the US to vote against Iran at the IAEA.
Both India and Iran, which have enjoyed traditionally strong ties,
with strategic convergence in areas such as Afghanistan now appear
keen to mend their ties.
According to Indian foreign ministry officials, Ahmadinejad and
Singh will review issues of bilateral, regional and global
significance and take stock of the progress on the ambitious Iran-
Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline as well as the bilateral Liquefied
Natural Gas (LNG) project.
During talks in Pakistan on Monday, Ahmadinejad had discussed and
cleared all hurdles concerning the gas pipeline to India and had
agreed to sign a deal soon. The work on the approximately 2,600-
kilometre pipeline from Iran's South Pars gasfield will start in
2009.
Besides the IPI pipeline, Singh and Ahmadinejad are also expected
to discuss a 22 billion-dollar LNG deal, which was signed during
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's visit to India in 2003.
New Delhi is expected to press Iran to honour the agreement which
could not be implemented so far because of differences in the cost of
gas.
The situation in connection with the stand-off between Iran and
the West over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme could also
come up for discussion between the leaders.
Other areas for talks include the stability in Afghanistan,
counter-terrorism and economic and strategic interests in Central
Asia, as both countries are observers in the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO), officials said.
India and Iran have concluded talks to construct a rail link
between Chahbahar (in south-eastern Iran) and the Iranian port of
Fahraj, Indian media reports said.
The two countries are also planning to co-operate in the
development of a North-South rail corridor connecting India and Iran
to Russia.
According to Indian analysts, New Delhi has come under pressure
from Washington to withdraw from the IPI project as the US believes
it would help strengthen Indian-Iranian relations and nullify its
efforts to isolate Tehran.
But with the India-US nuclear deal in limbo due to stiff
opposition from the Indian government's communist partners, India is
keen to secure hydro-carbon sources to meet its burgeoning energy
demands as its economy grows.
New Delhi has seen improving relations with US and Iran's
archrival Israel over the past years and is keen to repair ties with
its traditional ally.
It recently spurned advice from the United States to use its
influence and ask Iran to suspend its alleged uranium enrichment
activities. New Delhi said it was for the IAEA and not the US to
decide whether Iran was making nuclear weapons.
'India and Iran are ancient civilizations whose relations span
centuries,' a statement from India's Foreign Office said, adding,
'Neither country needs any guidance on the future conduct of
bilateral relations.'
USA
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