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Iran Lauds "Excellent Ties" With India
TEHRAN, April 12 (News Agencies) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for bolstering the alliance among eastern powers during his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, on the first trip to Iran by an Indian premier since 1993, the IRNA news agency reported.
Khamenei said an "expansion of ties among eastern countries in the current global and regional situation was necessary," adding that cooperation between Iran, India, Russia and China could have a positive impact on regional and global issues.
Khamenei said any opposition to such a partnership would only "strengthen the desire to expand ties because it is not acceptable that nations such as the United States interfere in the issues of all regions."
But India and Iran remain divided over Kashmir, where more than 34,000 people have been killed since a conflict erupted in the region in 1989.
"We hope for a solution that guarantees the rights of all residents, assuring them peace and security," Khamenei said.
Vajpayee responded that India was doing all it could to establish "peace and security" in the Himalayan state.
Khamenei also referred to a project for an Iran-India gas pipeline which could be "extremely beneficial and effective, and which could expand the two countries' economic ties very well."
But Indian officials said Monday in New Delhi that no immediate progress was expected on a long-delayed project to build a gas pipeline between Iran and India, which already imports $800 million worth of oil from Iran annually.
Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi hailed Tehran's "excellent ties" with New Delhi in a meeting Wednesday, the state radio reported.
The radio quoted Kharazi as saying that Vajpayee's "historic" trip "has a special place in the two countries' excellent ties."
The Iranian minister said the "common desires and views for a development and strengthening of security and stability on a regional and international level" were the "basis for long-term cooperation" between the two nations.
Both officials "expressed their desire for en expansion of cooperation in various fields," the radio said.
"Cooperation between the two countries in the energy, industry, technology, trade and tourism sectors is extremely important and can lead to an economic development and flourishing in the region," the ministers stressed during the talks, the state radio said.
Vajpayee, for his part, termed cooperation between the two countries as "important."
The ministers also exchanged views on the Afghan crisis and underlined the need for talks between Afghanistan's warring factions in order to establish "calm and peace" in the country.
The Indian prime minister, who met with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami Tuesday Monday when the two men signed several cooperation accords on energy, trade and customs, will depart Iran Friday.
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