PM to hold talk with Ahmadinejad in Tehran

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves for Tehran on Tuesday to attend a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement leaders on August 30 and 31, preceded by a meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Singh will seek to reinvigorate ties with Iran at the meeting with Ahmadinejad on Wednesday during which the two leaders will discuss a range of issues, including trade, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told reporters here yesterday.“Our relations have been strong. As for trade, the balance is in favour of Iran and we would concentrate on increasing trade,” Mathai asid.Mathai will attend a trilateral India-Afghanistan-Iran meeting in Tehran today ahead of the NAM summit.India’s imports from Iran in 2011-12 were at $12bn and exports at $3bn.Asked whether Washington had raised its concerns over Iran at the meeting here earlier this week between visiting US Permanent Representative to the UN Susan Rice and Indian officials, including Mathai, the foreign secretary said: “We did discuss issues relating to Iran but informally.”Pressed whether India would convey the US concerns on Iran, Mathai replied: “Peace and security are our (India’s) primary concerns. This is our concern and we don’t have to take anyone else’s concern as a priority.”India will also press Iran to co-operate in the investigation into the attack on an Israeli diplomat in February when Singh meets Ahmadinejad.“We haven’t received the report of the Delhi police so far,” Mathai said when asked whether the February 13 attack on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi will figure in the discussions between the leaders.“In general terms, we will be expressing our desire that Iran co-operate so that we can arrive at the bottom of the issue,” Mathai said.Israel has accused Iran of masterminding the car bomb blast, a charge rejected by Tehran.Asked whether the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project was still on, Yash Sinha, joint secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, who was also present at the briefing, said the issue would be discussed at next month’s meeting in New Delhi of the India-Iran joint working group on hydrocarbons.According to Mathai, meetings are also planned on the sidelines of the NAM summit between Singh and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and leaders of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal. He, however, would not go into specifics of what was expected of the meeting between Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.“We are also hoping for a pull-aside with the president of Egypt (the current NAM secretary general),” Mathai added.This will be Singh’s third NAM summit after Havana (2006) and Sharm el Sheikh (2009).Asked about India’s expectations from the summit, Mathai said: “NAM remains as relevant today as when it was created (in 1961). We need to re-invigorate the movement for a greater focus on the issues of global governance, reform of international institutions, food security and energy.”“The time has come to give grater emphasis to global issues,” he added.