India, Iran discuss development of cooperation

Iran's Ambassador to India Iraj Elahi and Indian Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday discussed the development of cooperation between India and Iran.

India-Iran relations span centuries marked by meaningful interactions. The two countries shared a border till 1947 and share several common features in their language, culture and traditions, as per India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Both South Asia and the Persian Gulf have strong commercial, energy, cultural and people-to-people links, the MEA said.

Recently, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian hosted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Tehran.

The two leaders discussed expanding bilateral and multilateral ties within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and BRICS.

The Iranian Foreign Minister said he and Jaishankar discussed the latest international and regional developments, including the Israel-Hamas war. During the meeting, Hossein Amir Abdollahian highlighted the importance of providing security in international waterways near Iran.

On January 29, a swift response by Indian Navy's Mission Deployed warship ensured safe release of hijacked Iranian vessel and crew. INS Sumitra, on Anti-Piracy ops along East coast of Somalia and Gulf of Aden, responded to a distress message regarding hijacking of an Iranian flagged Fishing Vessel (FV) Iman. The FV had been boarded by pirates and the crew taken as hostages. Sumitra intercepted the vessel, acted in accordance with the established SOPs to coerce the pirates for safe release of crew along with the boat & ensured successful release of all 17 crew members along with the boat.

(ANI)