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NEW DELHI: There are more evidence of New Delhi's attempts to engage Tehran as Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar will travel to Iran on a five-day visit in the first week of November.
Emphasizing on the need for better relations between the two countries, Kumar told her Iranian counterpart Ali Larijani this week in a meeting at the 125th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Berne that the ongoing development in Afghanistan was important for both the nations and no nation can fight terrorism alone.
Government sources said Kumar agreed to the visit, the invitation for which had been received from Iranian authorities over a year ago.
Kumar's visit comes towards the end of a year that has seen India increasingly trying to engage Iran. Earlier, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had impressed upon Tehran that India wants to have strategic ties with Iran.
Menon was reported to have told Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit in March that India wants to have "all out strategic relationship" with Tehran.
"Speaker will lead a Parliamentary delegation to Iran from November 2 to 6. She had received an invitation last year but things have worked out now. Besides high-level meetings, she will also visit a Kendriya Vidyalaya in the country," said an official.
Kumar's decision to visit Iran follows Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of UNGA, where the two countries further warmed up to each other. Ahmadinejad renewed Iran's invitation to Singh to visit Tehran during the New York meeting last month. Singh accepted the invitation.
Singh's visit to Iran has been in the pipeline for a few years now. "There was an invitation earlier too but maybe because of the circumstances there was no political will on either side to make it happen soon," said another official.
Despite attempts by India to control the damage, its votes in the IAEA in favour of resolutions against Iran for its alleged nuclear weapons programme have adversely impacted relations, with Tehran even suggesting in the past that India could be acting under pressure from the US.
India has also sought to repair bilateral ties with Iran because of the evolving situation in Afghanistan, where US-led forces are seeking to pull out by 2014. Indian officials believe that Iran, thanks to its traditional antipathy for Taliban, is a natural ally for India in dealing with the Afghan situation after the drawdown.
On a three-day visit to Iran in July, Rao had conveyed to Iran that India wanted to elevate ties between the two countries to the strategic level. In her meeting with Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Saeed Jailili, Rao had said "historical commonalities between the two nations require expansion of strategic cooperation between the two countries".
Lok Sabha Speaker's visit to Iran aims to deepen strategic ties - The Times of India
Emphasizing on the need for better relations between the two countries, Kumar told her Iranian counterpart Ali Larijani this week in a meeting at the 125th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Berne that the ongoing development in Afghanistan was important for both the nations and no nation can fight terrorism alone.
Government sources said Kumar agreed to the visit, the invitation for which had been received from Iranian authorities over a year ago.
Kumar's visit comes towards the end of a year that has seen India increasingly trying to engage Iran. Earlier, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had impressed upon Tehran that India wants to have strategic ties with Iran.
Menon was reported to have told Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit in March that India wants to have "all out strategic relationship" with Tehran.
"Speaker will lead a Parliamentary delegation to Iran from November 2 to 6. She had received an invitation last year but things have worked out now. Besides high-level meetings, she will also visit a Kendriya Vidyalaya in the country," said an official.
Kumar's decision to visit Iran follows Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of UNGA, where the two countries further warmed up to each other. Ahmadinejad renewed Iran's invitation to Singh to visit Tehran during the New York meeting last month. Singh accepted the invitation.
Singh's visit to Iran has been in the pipeline for a few years now. "There was an invitation earlier too but maybe because of the circumstances there was no political will on either side to make it happen soon," said another official.
Despite attempts by India to control the damage, its votes in the IAEA in favour of resolutions against Iran for its alleged nuclear weapons programme have adversely impacted relations, with Tehran even suggesting in the past that India could be acting under pressure from the US.
India has also sought to repair bilateral ties with Iran because of the evolving situation in Afghanistan, where US-led forces are seeking to pull out by 2014. Indian officials believe that Iran, thanks to its traditional antipathy for Taliban, is a natural ally for India in dealing with the Afghan situation after the drawdown.
On a three-day visit to Iran in July, Rao had conveyed to Iran that India wanted to elevate ties between the two countries to the strategic level. In her meeting with Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Saeed Jailili, Rao had said "historical commonalities between the two nations require expansion of strategic cooperation between the two countries".
Lok Sabha Speaker's visit to Iran aims to deepen strategic ties - The Times of India
