Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 7

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stopped over in Tehran en route to Moscow and handed over a personal message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to President-elect of Iran Ebrahim Raisi.

“Appreciate his warm sentiments for India. Deeply value his strong commitment to strengthen our bilateral ties and expand cooperation on regional and global issues,” he said after the meeting.

At the Iranian Foreign Office, Jaishankar met Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and discussed bilateral relations and regional developments, according to the Iranian Embassy here.

Jaishankar stopped in Tehran en route to Moscow for a meeting with his counterpart Sergei Lavrov that would also be devoted to discussing the developments in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has been making military gains against the US-backed government in Kabul.

Significantly, Tehran had just hosted Afghan officials and the Taliban, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) chief had visited Kabul.

Last time, Iran, Russia and India had jointly backed the Northern Alliance against the Taliban regime after the US intervention in 2001.

Both Iran and Russia had opened channels well before India, but the expectation in South Block is that the three countries would make common cause against Taliban. Being Sunni-led, Taliban has been at odds with the Shia population spread across the borders of Iran and Afghanistan.

In the case of Russia, the reading is that it will be wary of its brand of radicalism permeating its underbelly of secular Central Asian countries.