Hamid Ansari to represent India at swearing-in of Iranian President

NEW DELHI: Vice President Hamid Ansari will represent India at the inauguration ceremony of new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on August 4.

The Vice President of India will visit Tehran on August 4 to attend the swearing-in ceremony of newly elected President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the External Affairs Ministry said in a release.

Rouhani, who won a landslide victory in the June 14 presidential election, will be sworn in on August 4.

He succeeds President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran has sent invitations to world leaders to attend Rouhani's inauguration.

After his victory, Rouhani had sent a message to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying expansion of all-out relations with India will be a foreign policy priority for the next Iranian administration.

Rouhani, a moderate, had visited India in 2002, when he had met his counterpart NSA Brajesh Mishra and had also called on then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

cxIndia is Iran's second largest oil customer after China and purchases around USD billion worth of Iranian crude oil every year.