Iran's President Ibrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. India said that it is with Iran in this hour of crisis. India and Iran enjoy close relations today. But many times these relations have deteriorated due to pressure from western countries.
Iran's President Ibrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief. Apart from this, there was a one-day state mourning in India on Tuesday. This shows the close relations between the two countries. But relations with Iran have not always been so good. Relations between the two countries have sometimes deteriorated due to pressure from the West.Diplomatic relations between India and Iran were established in the year 1950. For decades the two countries have enjoyed close economic and political relations based on oil, a shared view on terrorism and Pakistan.
But to understand what went wrong in their relationship, we have to understand the events that happened in 2003. In 2003, India and Iran signed the Delhi Declaration during the visit of President Mohammad Khatami to India. According to this, both sides will develop Chabahar port to promote trade.Will cooperate in defense and focus on deepening energy ties through investment in Iran. But this plan got derailed. The reason for this was Iran's nuclear weapons program, which began in the late 1990s.
West's eye on Iran's nuclear program
Iran's nuclear program attracted the attention of Western countries and America, which were engaged in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. In 2004, Iran reached an agreement to reduce nuclear activity and reduce tensions with the West. Although the talks were ended by the West in 2005,Because Iran was found making uranium in one of its facilities. America also imposed sanctions. It was clear from this that India's relations with Iran were in trouble.
India went against Iran
This was a time of crisis for India. Because he was engaged in deepening relations with Iran. On the other hand, it was also negotiating a civil nuclear deal with America. In September 2005 the External Affairs Minister visited Iran. US officials warned India that the civil nuclear deal could be rejected by Congress.After this, India intervened against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2005 and 2006. For India, the civil nuclear deal was more important than friendship with Iran. Despite problems related to strategic and defence partnership, India imported oil worth billions of dollars from Iran.
How are India-Iran relations now?
Energy relations were affected in 2010 following US pressure. India was then unable to make oil payments to Iran, during which Tehran threatened to stop oil sales to India. This problem became serious in the year 2012. America and Europe's sanctions on Iran became even more stringent. In May 2012, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during her visit to India, asked Iran to cut oil imports.There was a 15 percent reduction in imports in 2013. Even after the problems faced for the next several years, relations between India and Iran did not break. India approved Iran's entry into SCO in the year 2023. Not only this, recently a big deal was also made regarding Chabahar port, on which America has threatened sanctions.