India's defence chief Rajnath Singh met Iran’s Minister of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics Brigadier General Mohammed Reza Gharaei Ashtiyani in New Delhi on Thursday, a statement by Indian defence ministry announced.
According to New Delhi, Singh and Ashtiyani reviewed the status of bilateral defence cooperation and exchanged views on regional security issues during their talks. The statement noted that they also discussed peace and security in Afghanistan.
Further, the two delegates also held talks on the “development of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a Moscow-backed initiative which strives to achieve seamless connectivity from Russia to Iran and India through Central Asia.
The statement emphasised that the INSTC will “ease logistic problems to Afghanistan and other countries in Central Asia”.
A trilateral agreement among Iran, India and Afghanistan on ‘Establishment of International Transport and Transit Corridors’ to facilitate movement of goods between India and central Asian states was signed in 2016.
New Delhi transported around 75,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan in 2020 through the Chabahar port.
SCO Defence Ministers’ Meeting
Ashtiyani is in New Delhi to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ Meeting scheduled to take place on Friday.
The Indian defence ministry has said that regional peace and security, counter terrorism efforts within SCO and an “effective multilateralism” will be the key areas of discussion during the SCO meeting on Friday.
“India considers SCO as an important regional group to promote multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interactions in the region,” it stated.
It said that New Delhi has been making efforts to “enhance interoperability” among SCO states in order to achieve the goals of the organisation. New Delhi is the current chair of the SCO.