NEW DELHI – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Saturday said India and Iranhave a “common stance” in effectively dealing with terrorism and extremism,and called for concerted regional efforts to deal with the challenge, PTIhas reported.
However Rouhani failed to mention atrocities in occupied Kashmir in thebilateral talks
After holding wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, MrRouhani said the two sides deliberated on a range of pressing bilateral,regional and international issues but did not disagree on even a “singletopic”.
“Iran and India have a common stance on confronting terrorism andextremism, and we are determined to confront terrorism and extremismthrough culture and the exchange of information and experience,” he said ina statement to the media.
Asked whether India raised the issue of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism inJammu and Kashmir during today’s talks, officials in the Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA) said that there was an understanding on how Indiawas a victim of terrorism, indicating that it figured in the deliberations.
Mr Rouhani said he had very good discussions with PM Modi on stepping upcooperation in a number of key areas including oil and gas as well as oncrucial connectivity projects like development of Chabahar port.
“Today, we are witnessing the development of Chabahar Port and a momentumin the construction of Chabahar railway to Zahedan with India’sinvestment,” Mr Rouhani said, asserting that ties between the two countriesare going to intensify further.
The Iranian President said PM Modi’s visit to Tehran in 2016 paved the wayfor bringing new momentum in ties and its fruits are being seeing today.
“Relations between Iran and India are beyond political and diplomatic. Itis a historical relationship, it is a relationship based on civilisationalheritage,” he said.
Mr Rouhani said Iran was “fully ready” to intensify cooperation in theareas of energy, particularly oil, gas and petrochemicals.
“We also had a great deal of discussion today on facilitating economicrelations, preferential trade tariffs, better banking relations, visarelations and facilitating travel between the two countries for businesspurposes,” he said.
On convergence of views between the two sides on key issues, Mr Rouhanisaid, “On all major bilateral, regional and international issues, we didnot disagree on even a single topic”.
Referring to the situation in Afghanistan, he said both countries were ofthe opinion that all stakeholders should work for peace and stability ofthe country.
“We believe that the various issues of the region, especially in Syria,Iraq and Yemen, should be resolved through political initiatives,” he said.
On Iran’s nuclear issue, he said both the countries have a common viewpointthat the commitment to the international agreement must be honoured. –