Boosting Ties: Issues of mutual concern to be taken up during Ajit Doval's Iran trip

National security Advisor Ajit Doval is scheduled to visit Tehran on Monday at the invitation of his Iranian counterpart Ali Shamkhani ahead of the country’s formal entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit on July 3-4.

During his one-day Tehran trip, Doval will hold meetings with Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, and other senior officials and discuss issues of mutual interest, people familiar with the agenda said. This will be the maiden high-level visit from India to Iran since rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh that promises to stabilise the larger West Asian region.

Following the Saudi-Iran peace deal, a senior official from the Ministry of External Affairs had travelled to Riyadh to discuss wide-ranging issues. ET has learnt that Iran’s formal admission into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will be a key item on Doval’s agenda.

Iran may also discuss its prospective entry into BRICS and nudge India to start purchasing oil through the mechanism of national currencies as in the past. Iran shares a long boundary with Afghanistan and the two NSAs are also expected to discuss the current situation in the landlocked country and emerging terror threats from there.