The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, January 26, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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Iran forges strategic ties with India
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Sayyed Mohammad Khatami inspects the guard of honour in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Saturday.

Indian President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam with Iranian President Khatami in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan. — PTI photos

New Delhi, January 25
Iran today became the first major Muslim country to sign a memorandum of understanding with India on road map to strategic cooperation and the visiting Iranian President Sayyed Mohammad Khatami and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee jointly declared their intent to enhance this cooperation and fight against terrorism together.

This was the major outcome of the Indo-Iran delegation-level talks and one-to-one talks between Mr Khatami and Mr Vajpayee held in Hyderabad House today.

The two leaders also inked the New Delhi Declaration which puts forth the vision of strategic partnership between India and Iran and reiterates the two countries’ resolve to work for an early finalisation of a comprehensive convention against international terrorism.

Seven agreements were signed between the two countries today and New Delhi and Teheran also agreed to explore opportunities for cooperation in defence “in agreed areas”.

At a joint press conference by Mr Khatami and Mr Vajpayee after the talks tonight, the Iranian President handed a veiled warning to the USA against indefinite presence of American troops in Afghanistan and stressed self-determination by the people of Afghanistan to decide their own future.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee welcomes President Khatami at the Prime Minister's residence in New Delhi on Friday. — PTI photo

Mr Khatami said if the people of Afghanistan became unhappy and if they think that foreign troops were remaining in their country with no development work taking place “then we are going to have a serious problem.”

The Iranian President made this remark at a joint press interaction with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee after having one-to-one talks with him at the Hyderabad House here. The two sides also had delegation-level talks in which External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, Defence Minister George Fernandes, Human Resource Development and Science and Technology Minister Murali Manohar Joshi, Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma and Principal Secretary to Prime Minister and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra participated from the Indian side while the Iranian delegation comprised of several senior ministers, including Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani and Science and Technology Minister Mostafa Moeen.