President highlights great capacities of Iran, India in ensuring region’s security

In a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi said close cooperation between the two countries plays an important role in promotion of peace and stability in the region.

"Iran and India can play a constructive and helpful role in ensuring security in the region, especially in Afghanistan, and Tehran welcomes New Delhi’s role in the establishment of security in Afghanistan,” Raeisi added.

"The fate of Afghanistan must be determined by the Afghans only, and we believe that if the Americans do not carry out any act of sabotage in this regard, the conflict will be solved immediately," he pointed out.

The president also said Tehran attaches special importance to establishment of extensive relations with New Delhi, urging the two sides to “take new and different steps towards development of bilateral, regional and international relations with a new perspective."

He added that the Iranian administration would seriously pursue the policy of boosting relations with neighboring and regional countries, particularly India, and noted that Tehran and New Delhi enjoy great capacities in various sectors, especially in the economic and commercial fields as well as new technology, which should be utilized to strengthen relations.

The Indian foreign minister, for his part, said his country would make efforts to promote bilateral cooperation to the highest level possible.

Jaishankar criticized the current level of mutual relations as not satisfactory, and voiced his country’s determination to establish long-term cooperation with Iran in line with the interests of the two nations.

SS