Chabahar port on agenda during Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif's visit

NEW DELHI: Iran foreign minister Javad Zarif will visit India starting Friday this week in what will be the first visit to the country by an Iranian leader after Tehran's landmark nuclear agreement with the West.

Zarif will not just call on PM Narendra Modi and hold discussions with his counterpart Sushma Swaraj, but also meet Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari to give a leg up to the Chabahar port project which is crucial for India's access to central Asia.

Gadkari had visited Iran in May this year to sign a MoU for development of the project which is expected to become operational by December next year.

"A great potential of cooperation exists between India and Iran. Iran offers access to India through the Chabahar and Bandar Abbas ports and through the north-south corridor to Central Asia, Afghanistan, Russia, the Caucasus region and even Turkey,'' Iran's ambassador to India Gholamreza Ansari told a news agency ahead of the visit.

Modi had met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani recently in Ufa on the sidelines of the SCO summit where he accepted Rouhani's invite to meet the resurgent Shiite country.

"We hope that it materializes soon to give the required impetus to bilateral ties and to firm up a strategic partnership," Ansari said, adding that Modi and Iranian President Hasan Rouhani had a "useful meeting" in the Russian city of Ufa on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.

Ansari thanked India for extending all possible help to Iran during the sanctions regime that is now coming to an end with an agreement on Tehran's nuclear programme. "It has brought us together. India opened a credit line which helped in easing economic pressure on the regime," adding that India's dues of $8 billion can be utilized for setting up major developmental projects in Iran.