Our distinguished friends and guests and the President of Islamic Republic of Iran, His Excellency Dr. Hassan Rouhani,
Respected members of the delegations from India and Iran,
Friends from Media,
Namaskar!
Your Excellency,
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you here in India.
This state visit of the President of Iran is happening after an interval of ten years. It is a matter of great pleasure for us to host you here in India.
I visited Tehran in the year 2016. And now your visit within two years offers a gold opportunity to further strengthen our old and friendly relations.
Our mutual relations are not just political and diplomatic, these are thousands of years old cultural and civilizational relations.
These relations have mutual trust and respect for each other.
As a neighbor and friend, the relationship between India and Iran has continued to further enhance the existence of each other for hundreds of years.
The amount of respect Maulana Rumi got in Iran, it is the same here in India also.
Mutual cooperation between the two countries aspires for prosperity in both countries and hope for peace and stability in both our region and the world.
Excellency,
Your leadership and your clarity of vision has made a very big contribution in further strengthening the India-Iran relations.
During my visit to Iran in 2016, we had set the agenda and roadmap for bilateral cooperation. Your partnership with India has increased to a new higher and higher level of cooperation. Your India visit has taken our partnership to a new and higher level of
cooperation.
Today's results and the agreements that we have signed are indicative of the progress made in the last few quarters.
This reflects the desire from both sides that we want to increase our bilateral economic cooperation, we want to further enhance connectivity, we want to increase partnership in the field of energy and want to further strengthen our centuries old cultural relations.
We are rapidly moving towards further enhancing our regional connectivity.
Excellency,
I congratulate you for your leadership in the development of Chabahar Port as the golden gateway to Central Asia for the land locked Afghanistan.
We will support the development of Chabahar-Zahidan railway line so that Chabahar Gateway can be utilized to its full potential.
Today we have discussed many more issues and also made many decisions. Whether it is tax or investment, whether it is effective banking channels or cooperation between trade bodies, we have taken several important steps for the future today.
We have given special attention to enhance mutual exchange between people. For a very long time Indians and Iranians have been learning from each other and have been studying at each other’s place. I'm glad that through students and scholars this process is
still continuing even today.
Enhancing parliamentary exchanges, providing e-visa facility on a reciprocal basis, organizing cultural festivals; establishing a chair in Indian studies and collaboration in Persian language in Iran will help in this direction.
We have also talked about the solution of humanitarian issues related to fishermen and sea-farers.
We have expanded our area of cooperation to new sectors of infrastructure, health, traditional medicine, agriculture, labor, entrepreneurship and communication.
We agree that the partnership between India and Iran is in the interest of peace, prosperity and stability in this area.
We both want to see our friend and neighbor Afghanistan as a peaceful, safe, sustainable, prosperous and pluralistic nation.
We want to see our region and the world free from terrorism.
Both Indian and Iranian people are associated with the shared ideology of Sufi message of peace and tolerance. Looking at our common interests, we are committed to stopping the expansion of such forces that promote terrorism, extremism, illegal drug trafficking,
cyber-crime and international organized crime in various forms.
Excellency,
Your visit will guide the vision of strategic cooperation for both our countries and for the benefit of the people of this region.
Once again I thank you very much for accepting our invitation.
Jai Hind!
Disclaimer: PM’s speech was delivered in Hindi. This is an approximate translation of his speech