FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Iranian President Rouhani Makes First Official Visit to India
Feb. 15, 2018 (EIRNS)—Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has arrived in Hyderabad, India, a southern city with a large Shi’a population, on his Feb. 15-17 visit to India. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Feb. 17.
Speaking to reporters before embarking on his first official visit to India since taking office in 2013, President Rouhani said Iran and India have strong historical relations in various fields. “Till the recent centuries, the Persian language was spoken by most people in the Indian Subcontinent,” President Rouhani was quoted today in a Farsi report by Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Rouhani said that in the second part of the visit, he will take the Iranian delegation to New Delhi for economic and political talks with Indian high-ranking officials.
The visit of President Rouhani is considered an important one. Since Washington has taken a tough stance against Tehran, Indian Prime Minister Modi’s inviting Rouhani is considered significant.
“That India is reliant on West Asian countries for its oil and gas needs is obvious. However, these countries are also aware that, as the U.S. is no longer dependent for its oil needs on this region, they need the Indian market. Thus, the energy relationship can be transformed from a simple buyer-seller matrix to one in which India can meaningfully participate in the entire energy industry,”
the Quint, an Indian news site, assessed.
As the Jerusalem Post wrote in its Feb. 13 issue,
“Modi’s welcome of Netanyahu, followed quickly by his current trip to the Palestinian Authority, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, and now his hosting of Rouhani, reflects his foreign policy of being able to deal individually, for the benefit of India, with different countries even if they are at loggerheads.”
