Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to meet Modi, Jaishankar

Zarif among a dozen Foreign Ministers who will participate in the Raisina Dialogue beginning in New Delhi on Tuesday

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar in New Delhi and interact with businesses in Mumbai this week during his four-day India visit.

The Iranian Minister will also deliver his address at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi on Wednesday, which is scheduled to be attended by as many as a dozen Foreign Ministers, including from Russia, Australia, Maldives, South Africa, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Uzbekistan and the EU. The Indian PM will attend the inaugural session of the multilateral dialogue on Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

Zarif, who will visit India for the first time after Iran’s military commander, Qasem Soleimani, was killed in a drone strike carried out by the US earlier this month, is expected to discuss the future of bilateral trade and economic relationship with India in the light of rising tensions between the Islamic nation and Washington, according to sources close to the development.

Jaishankar spoke to Zarif on the phone on January 5 expressing deep concern at the level of tension, following the attack that killed Soleimani. "Just concluded a conversation with FM @JZarif of Iran. Noted that developments have taken a very serious turn. India remains deeply concerned about the levels of tension. We agreed to remain in touch," he tweeted after his conversation.

New Delhi stopped buying oil from Iran last year to adhere to economic sanctions announced against the country by the US on grounds that the country was proliferating weapons of mass destruction. The country, however, continues to develop and operate the ambitious Chabahar port with Iran and Afghanistan that connects the three countries.

India-Iran trade has declined significantly to $3.5 billion in the first eight months of the ongoing fiscal. In 2018-19, bilateral trade was valued at $17 billion, a bulk of which comprised oil imports from Iran.

Washington announced fresh economic sanctions against Iran last week on metals, after the country’s retaliatory attacks on US targets in Iraq, and warned that more were to come.