Iran’s top diplomat also pointed to historical ties between the two countries in various sectors, especially energy and trade, hoping to boost them both in terms of quality and volume, IRNA reported.
Zarif demanded that Iranian students in India have broader facilities.
India’s foreign secretary deemed the prospect of India’s relations with Iran positive, noting that his recent meeting with Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh in the energy sector was productive, Financial Tribune reported.
Last month, Zanganeh referred to India as one of the “good customers” of Iranian oil, but asserted that “we cannot sign a contract under threat”.
He was referring to the countries’ dispute over Farzad-B (an offshore oilfield in the Persian Gulf) project and unsettled oil dues of private Indian refiners, which are expected to be resolved soon.
Jaishankar also emphasized the necessity of increasing bilateral relations through the “International North-South Transport Corridor”.
India, Russia and Iran jointly envisaged the INSTC in September 2000 as a multimodal transportation corridor that would link the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea through Iran and onward to North Europe via Russia.
Iran’s relations with India, which had become restricted to the import of non-essential goods from India in return for selling Iran’s crude to Indian oil companies due to anti-Iran sanctions, have now entered a totally different phase.
This follows the endorsement and implementation of Iran’s nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, with six world powers.