Iran is a natural partner, says Jaswant

Iran is a natural partner, says Jaswant
JYOTI MALHOTRA

TEHRAN, MAY 23: In the continuing high season of India's foreign policy, Iran seems to be the flavour of the month. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh on Monday described Tehran as a 'natural partner' of New Delhi in talks with Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, initiating this Islamic nation into India's varied club of strategic partners, natural partners and natural allies.

Iran's reformer-cleric President, who has been leading this country through its own version of perestroika, is believed to have fulsomely returned the compliment. The Taliban's throwback version of Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan is a key, common area of concern.

Meanwhile, New Delhi's search for a reliable Islamic partner in the extended neighbourhood, which also gives a fillip to its own secular credentials as well as secures long-term energy resources, could end with Iran.

Khatami told Singh: "India's interaction with Iran is important for regional stability." This clearly indicates that Tehran, though sanctioned by the US for 20-odd years, is keen and willing to make new friends in the region.

Ministry officials describing the meeting said that there was a certain 'intellectual vibe' between the two leaders as they spoke about literature, the arts and the synergetic influence between Persia and Hindustan.

Clearly though, once the warmest pleasantries were exchanged, both sides were believed to have done some serious talking, including cooperation in energy resources between India and Iran. Significantly, a question on possible defence interaction between Iran and India, to perhaps underline common interests in regional stability, was greeted with a long, pregnant silence by officials here, leading to speculation that something was indeed in the offing.

Ten years after the Cold War, India clearly wants to make new forays into the Islamic world, so what if it has to frog-leap over Pakistan to do so. A large official delegation has accompanied Jaswant Singh on his visit - comprising representatives from the ministries of Railways, Petroleum, Culture, Commerce, besides External Affairs - and a number of projects are in the offing.

In talks with both Khatami and Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazzi, the question of the gas pipeline from Iran to India was raised. Officials said it would be in 'the long-term interest of both nations' if cooperation in hydrocarbons could be made the plank of the relationship, but did not say whether the Pakistani alternative - laying a pipeline overland through the territory of Pakistan - was either rejected outright or admitted.

It seems likely that a 1993 Indo-Iranian Memorandum of Understanding on this issue will now be revived, so as to allow New Delhi to finally make up its mind and manoeuvre its way through the dense traffic of competing lobbies and interest groups.

In fact, Iran with its enormous natural gas resources (it has the second largest reserves in the world) could well become a trijunction of pipelines from Central Asia and Gulf countries like Oman and Qatar. India, as the largest consumer of energy in the region with its billion-odd people, has enormous leverage to set and direct the course of regional power play.

Singh has also used his visit not only to applaud a proposal made three years ago by Khatami to undertake a 'dialogue of civilisations' but in the bargain also revive interest in the ancient heritage of both countries, including their common Aryan origins (the first people to come to Iran are said to have emigrated from the Caucasus-Caspian Sea regions).