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http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/game...da-as-as-pm-modi-visits-iran-10-facts-1408983
TEHRAN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Iran's top leaders including President Hassan Rouhani as he begins the operative part of his visit to the country. The centerpiece of his visit is the signing of a trilateral agreement on the Chabahar port, which will open up access to central Asia.
Here are the top 10 developments in this big story:
TEHRAN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Iran's top leaders including President Hassan Rouhani as he begins the operative part of his visit to the country. The centerpiece of his visit is the signing of a trilateral agreement on the Chabahar port, which will open up access to central Asia.
Here are the top 10 developments in this big story:
- PM Modi is expected to meet the Iran President after a ceremonial welcome. He will also meet the country's supreme religious and political leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
- Afghan president Ashraf Ghani is expected to join PM Modi and President Rouhani for the signing of the agreement on Chabahar, a strategic port in the Gulf of Oman on Iran's southern coast with Afghanistan.
- India will help develop the port and invest in the first phase around $200 million to develop terminals and cargo berths at Chabahar. In the next phase, India plans to build a 500-km railway line between Chabahar and Zahedan.
- With this, landlocked Afghanistan will get access to the Iranian port as an alternate to the Pakistani port of Karachi. It will also provide India with another route to into Afghanistan - with which it has developed close diplomatic and strategic ties. Now India does not have access to Afghanistan on a land route due to opposition from Pakistan.
- India's move is also being seen as a balance to China's influence in Pakistan. Chabahar is 100 km from Pakistan's Gwadar port, which China is developing. The Chinese project comes on the heels of its investments in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives.
- PM Modi's visit -- the first by a Indian Prime Minister in 15 years -- comes four months after the sanctions on Iran were lifted and the international community is re-engaging with the nation.
- After arriving in Tehran last evening, the PM tweeted in Persian, "Reached Iran, a land with whom India shares civilisational ties. Hope to enhance economic partnership between our nations."
- On Sunday evening, PM Modi addressed the Indian community and visited a Gurdwara in Tehran.
- "Starting this Iran visit with a visit to this Gurdwara... We Indians have this specialty. We accept everyone and assimilate with everyone," the Prime Minister said in his address to the expat Indians after visiting the Bhai Ganga Singh Sabha Gurdwara.
- Before the visit, India has cleared part of its $6.4 billion oil dues to Iran. The bilateral talks will also feature Indian firms securing rights to develop the offshore Farzad-B gas field, which was discovered by ONGC Videsh.