Indian MEA holds talks with Iran and Turkey

Dushanbe: Indian MEA S. Jaishankar has reached Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan. The conference, ‘Heart of Asia’, about the issues of Afghanistan is organised in Dushanbe. During the conference, Indian MEA S Jaishankar held bilateral talks with Foreign Ministers of Iran and Turkey. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also is attending the conference. Talks were happening about whether the Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers will hold a meeting. But the Pakistan Foreign Minister clarified that there is no proposal from India for talks.

Representatives from 50 countries have reached Dushanbe for the Heart of Asia conference. MEA Jaishankar informed, on social media, that his conference started with a bilateral meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif. It is being said that there were detailed discussions regarding the bilateral cooperation and especially the development of the Chabahar port project. India is developing the Chabahar port in Iran and India has already started supply of essential good to Iran through this route. The importance of Chabahar port will increase phenomenally in the future. Moreover, India is working expeditiously on the project for using this port as the nodal point for trade with Iran, Afghanistan and the central Asian countries.

This makes Indian cooperation with Iran extremely important. A few days ago, India gifted Iran with two mobile harbour cranes with 140-tonne capacity. India’s oil-related cooperation also is coming back to its original state. Work on an eight-lane highway is going on between Dushanbe and Shortcut. This work is being executed by Indian Border Road Organisation (BRO). MEA Jaishankar reviewed the work and praised the BRO.

During this visit, the Indian MEA also held discussions with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Jaishankar said that the India-Turkey relations and the developments in Afghanistan were at the centre of the discussions. Soon, Turkey will be organising an independent meeting regarding the peace process in Afghanistan. India has already been invited to the meeting. Meanwhile, as both Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers were attending the Dushanbe meeting, there was a talk in the media about whether a meeting will be held between the two. Both India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire on the Line of Control in Kashmir. After that, Pakistan Prime Minister and the military chief had proposed talks to India. Pakistan Prime Minister announced that if talks are started between India and Pakistan, the trade pathway to the central Asian countries will be opened for India. Against this background, it was being claimed that there is a possibility of talks between the Indian and Pakistan Foreign Ministers.

But the Pakistan Foreign Minister announced that there has been no proposal for talks from the Indian side.