Iran will nudge India towards reviving its procurement of discounted Iranian sweet crude during a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi that is likely to take place this Friday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Samarkand. This will be the first time the two leaders will meet since Mr. Raisi’s election last year, as Iran joins the SCO as a member this year, and the question of India’s oil imports from Iran, which were cancelled in 2018-2019, as well as the next stage of Chabahar port development, regional connectivity and Afghanistan are all expected to be on the agenda for bilateral talks.
According to an official in Mr. Raisi’s office, the Iranian leader is expected to also meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the summit. The Ministry of External Affairs has not confirmed which leaders Mr. Modi will meet separately, but he is widely expected to meet President Putin, President Raisi and Uzbekistan President Shovkat Mirziyoyev. All eyes will be on any contact or engagement with the Chinese President, their first since the LAC military stand-off began and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whom he would be meeting for the first time since he took over.
Preparations for the meeting were discussed during a telephone conversation between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossain Amir-Abdollahian on September 5, as well as a meeting between Iranian Ambassador to India and Mr. Jaishankar on the same day.
