PM Narendra
Modi
expressed
solidarity
with the people of
Iran
as he said he was deeply concerned by reports regarding Iran Prez Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter flight that crashed in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. “We stand in solidarity with the Iranian people in this hour of distress, and pray for the well-being of the president and his entourage,” he said in a post on X late on Sunday, amid fears that
Raisi
may not have survived the crash.
Modi had last met Raisi on the margins of the
Brics summit
in Johannesburg in Aug 2023. The two leaders had discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields, including trade and investment,
connectivity
, energy and counter-terrorism. Iran, along with five other countries, had joined the group in that summit. Raisi had congratulated Modi on the success of Chandrayaan mission and thanked him for India’s support for Iran’s Brics membership.
In line with the ongoing high-level exchanges, which aided India’s delicately balanced approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict, foreign minister S Jaishankar had travelled to Iran in Jan for talks with his counterpart Amir Abdollahian, who too was in the same chopper as Raisi.
Raisi had also been looking to intensify engagement with India on the Chabahar port. He and Modi wanted to strengthen cooperation to realise the full potential of
Chabahar port
as a connectivity hub. Apart from the focus on connectivity initiatives, India and Iran have also worked in the recent past to ramp up political cooperation and strong people-to-people ties.
In their meeting in Aug, they had decided to fast-track infrastructure cooperation, including the Chabahar project. The two also exchanged views on regional developments, including Afghanistan where both countries are working to ensure the Taliban don’t allow terrorist groups to target any country. Raisi spoke again on phone with Modi in Nov to emphasise the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
