New Delhi: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi will be in Delhi on Thursday on a two-day visit to formally invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit to be held in Tehran in August.
Salehi, who will be in Delhi as the Special Envoy of President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad, will hand over an invitation to the Prime Minister, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
During the visit, he will hold talks with External Affairs Minister SM Krishna during which the two sides are expected to discuss ways to push the bilateral ties amidst the US pressure on India to cut its oil imports from Iran.
Ahmadinejad had called up the Prime Minister earlier this month to invite him to the NAM summit. He had informed Singh that Salehi would be visiting Delhi carrying the formal invite.
During the conversation, the Iranian President had "stressed on expansion of Tehran-New Delhi cooperation in different fields", saying "promotion of bilateral cooperation would lead to considerable achievements for both nations."
Ahmadinejad had said Iran and India enjoy "deep brotherly relations" and that "the two nations would witness bright future".
The Prime Minister, on his part, had said India attaches great importance to ties with Iran and "called for further expansion of cooperation with Tehran".
Singh had told Ahmedinejad that India welcomes widening relations with Iran on the basis of national interests.
The telephonic call from Ahmedinejad had come close on the heels of India stating that it had cut crude oil import from Iran by over 11 per cent this fiscal to 15.5 million tons.
The announcement about oil cut was made against the backdrop of intense US pressure on India to reduce its imports from Iran.
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