Iranian President speed dials Indian Prime minister
NEW DELHI: Amid talk of reducing crude imports from Iran, and barely a week after US secretary of state Hillary Clinton's visit to India,
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to expand bilateral ties in "different fields".
With India having declared that it is reducing its dependence on any particular region for crude import - even if not under Washington's pressure - Ahmadinejad's call is being seen as a gentle reminder to New Delhi that Iran is looking at the moves being made by India at the highest level. Ahmadinejad spoke to Singh on Monday evening and while he did not get into specifics,
he is said to have told the PM that the two countries enjoy "deep brotherly relations" and together, would witness a "bright future".
In his conversation with Singh, Ahmadinejad insisted that bilateral cooperation between India and Iran would lead to considerable achievements for both nations. Singh responded that widening ties with Iran was on the basis of "national interests". Backing expansion of cooperation with Iran, he said New Delhi attached great importance to ties with that country.
In yet another sign that Iran is trying to reach out to India, despite the oil cut, government sources said Tehran was likely to send its foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, soon to invite Singh for the 16th NAM summit to be held in Tehran in August and for bilateral talks with Ahmadinejad.
Iranian joint secretary in the foreign ministry Ahmed Sobhani, who handles India, is here for the next round of dialogue between the political committees formed by the two countries and is likely to touch upon the issue of a possible meeting between the two leaders later this year.
Ahmadinejad's call to Singh comes at a time when India is being seen as giving in to pressure from the US to cut its crude imports. While the imports have gone down considerably, the government has painstakingly denied being under pressure from the US and attributed it to purely financial and commercial considerations.
While Ahmadinejad's invitation to Singh to visit Iran is a long-standing one, which he reiterated during his meeting with Singh on the sidelines of UNGA last year, Indian officials remain tight-lipped about whether Singh will visit Tehran later this year.
Singh has attended both the NAM summits held during his eight-year tenure as PM - the 14th round in Havana, Cuba, in 2006 and 15th in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2009.
So far, Iran has not reacted officially to India's move to reduce its oil imports, but Ahmadinejad's call to Singh does suggest that Tehran is concerned about any drastic cut. The government has also said in Parliament that it is consciously trying to diversify its crude import sources to "reduce its dependence on any particular region of the world".
Even though India denies any pressure from the US, authorities in Washington, including Clinton, recently lauded India for steps taken by New Delhi to reduce oil imports and have also offered to help India identify other sources of energy. India depends on Iran for 12% of its 80% crude imports. Iran remains one of the most important countries for India in handling the situation in war-torn Afghanistan after the ISAF forces pull out in 2014.
Amid oil cuts, Ahmadinejad speed dials PM Manmohan Singh - The Times of India