Iran ready to relax visa norms, share oil & gas
Iran on Friday expressed willingness to share its vast oil and natural gas resources with India for the prosperity of its people and offered to simplify visa norms to strengthen the relations between the two countries.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is on a three-day visit to India, said the current century belongs to Asia, where New Delhi and Tehran have an important role to play. Addressing a Muslim congregation at the historic Mecca Masjid here after offering Friday prayers, he emphasised on the importance of the Chabahar port, saying it would open the transit route for India to Iran, Afghanistan (bypassing Pakistan), Central Asian countries and also Europe. Under an agreement, India is to invest $85 million to equip the port in southeastern Iran. “Iran has abundant oil and natural gas resources and is willing to share them with India for its progress and prosperity of (its) people,” Rouhani said. He said his country was hopeful India would reciprocate its offer to simplify visa rules to enhance people-to-people contact. “Iran is willing to further simplify visa procedure (for Indians) and I am hopeful the Indian government, too, will look into it for better relations between the people of India and Iran.”
On bilateral relations, he said, “We believe that the people of Iran and India had friendly relations with each other (for long). We had (close) cultural, economic and other relations with each other since the last many centuries.”
Earlier in the day, Rouhani visited the historic Qutub Shahi tombs complex here. These monuments are popularly known as the seven tombs and built in Iranian architecture style. Telangana government officials and Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) office-bearers briefed the visiting dignitary about the architecture and significance of the over-400year-old monuments.
Rouhani began his three-day India visit from Hyderabad on Thursday. He left for New Delhi on Friday.