Iran minister arrives in India to a 'warm welcome' amid Gulf backlash

In a bid to control the damage from the Nupur Sharma comment that cast a slur on the Prophet, the Indian foreign office said Iran Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian arrived in India to a “warm welcome” to hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.  He also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Abdollahian is the first leader from an Islamic country to come to New Delhi amid widespread anger in West Asian countries over Sharma’s comments that neither Jaishankar nor Modi have reacted to or commented on. His visit comes two days after Iran joined Arab nations in summoning Indian envoys to protest the former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson’s remarks.

Many from the retired diplomatic community in India said the comments had done irreparable damage to India’s ties with Islamic nations and undone extensive progress made in ties with these nations in the past eight years.

That despite its diplomatic stand on the Islamic slur, Iran went ahead with the visit was interpreted as a minor diplomatic victory. There was no change in Abdollahian’s schedule — he is on a three-day visit and will visit Mumbai and Hyderabad as planned.

Analysts put this down to enlightened self-interest on the part of both Iran and India. Ahead of Abdollahian visit, Iranian envoy to India Ali Chegeni was quoted as saying Tehran was ready to meet India’s energy security needs as negotiations continue between the world powers and Tehran on the lifting of sanctions against the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries member.

Iran used to be the second-largest oil supplier to India, but New Delhi had to halt imports from Tehran after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions on its oil exports. India and Iran have devised a barter-like mechanism to settle trade where Indian refiners were paying for Iranian oil in rupees to a local bank and the funds were used by Tehran to pay for imports from India.

There are other common interests as well. India took over the operations of a part of Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar. 

India started interacting with Iran on Chabahar Port around 2003, but a major push was received in the second half of 2014, resulting in the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries for the development of Chabahar Port in May 2015.

This MoU translated into a formal 10-year contract for equipping and operating Chabahar Port, which was executed on May 23, 2016, during Modi’s visit to Tehran.

India and Iran have been jointly focusing on improving connectivity between Southeast Asia and Central Asia.

Meanwhile, after a nearly 10-day silence, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday said India’s strength of co-existence of various communities cannot be harmed by any ‘narrow-minded’ communal conspiracy, and that the followers of all religions “flourish in India in an environment of equality, freedom, and inclusivity”. 

Equal rights, dignity, and prosperity of minorities, including Muslims, is a part of the country’s commitment to tolerance, harmony, and inclusivity, Naqvi told reporters.