Iranian foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, who recently offered to mediate between India and Pakistan, is set to travel to New Delhi next week for discussions on trade and economic cooperation, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Araghchi’s visit was scheduled long before tensions flared between India and Pakistan over the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. He is set to co-chair a meeting of the bilateral joint commission with external affairs minister S Jaishankar while in India during May 7-8, the people said on condition of anonymity.
This will be the first meeting of the joint commission, which mainly focuses on trade and economic cooperation, since December 2019, when Jaishankar travelled to Tehran for consultations. It will also be Araghchi’s first visit to India since he was appointed the foreign minister last August.
While the joint commission is supposed to meet every year, there has been a gap in its meetings because of the Covid-19 pandemic and domestic pre-occupations of the two countries. Though a substantive agenda of trade and economic issues, including development of Chabahar port, has been finalised, the people didn’t rule out the possibility of the India-Pakistan tensions figuring in Araghchi’s talks with Indian interlocutors.
Araghchi created a flutter in New Delhi by offering in a social media post last week to help “forge greater understanding” between India and Pakistan. The move came amid speculation within diplomatic circles about back-channel mediation by several West Asian countries that have close ties with both India and Pakistan.
Following the attack, India unveiled several punitive measures, including suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty and closure of the only operational land border crossing at Attari. Pakistan retaliated with counter-measures such as closing its airspace to Indian airliners and suspending all trade.
Araghchi, who also spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar on Friday, has described India and Pakistan as “brotherly neighbours” that Iran considers as a foremost priority.
There was no response from New Delhi to Araghchi’s offer and one of the people cited above noted that Iran and Pakistan had witnessed strains in their ties last year. In January 2024, Iran and Pakistan fired missiles targeting militants on each other’s territory.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi last Saturday and strongly condemned the Pahalgam terror attack. Both leaders agreed there is no justification for such terrorist acts, and Modi shared the anger and anguish of the Indian people and their “resolve to deal with those behind the terror attack and their supporters”, according to a readout from the external affairs ministry.
Pezeshkian emphasised the need for regional cooperation against terrorism and said Iran is opposed to such “inhumane acts”, according to the Iranian embassy. Pezeshkian described Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru as “messengers of peace, friendship and coexistence” and hoped their “spirit will remain in India’s relations with all countries”.
Besides trade and economic issues, the joint commission also handles humanitarian matters and is expected to take up problems related to fishermen and seafarers, the people said.
Araghchi’s visit will also be an opportunity for the Iranian side to brief India on Iran’s discussions with the US and key European powers on the nuclear issue. Iran is set to hold its third round of talks with the US in Rome on May 3 and Iranian officials are also expected to meet their French, German and British counterparts on May 2. HT
