South Caucasus emerges as crucial transit hub for India's Iran evacuations

New Delhi: Armenia assisted India in the repatriation of fishermen, while Azerbaijan facilitated the evacuation of 32 staff and family members from the Indian embassy in Tehran during the Iran war over the past week, said people familiar with the developments.

Nearly 1,800 Indian nationals were repatriated with the help of Iranian authorities via Armenia and Azerbaijan, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said on April 6.

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Of late, India and Azerbaijan initiated confidence building measures through official-level dialogue seeking to reset ties. Earlier this month, a foreign ministry delegation led by secretary (West) Sibi George met the Azerbaijan foreign minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Baku.

During the meeting, the current state and prospects of bilateral relations, along with issues of cooperation in the fields of economic and trade relations, energy, tourism and education were discussed, according to Azerbaijani foreign ministry statement.

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At the same time, positions on issues of disagreement between the two sides were brought to attention, with an emphasis on the importance of dialogue in this direction, according to the statement. The MEA statement mentioned that the issue of cross-border terrorism was also on the meeting agenda.