Iran, India Discuss Defense Ties
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Senior military officials weighed plans for closer defense cooperation between Iran and India considering the delicate situation in the West Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
Iran and India, located in strategic regions, have great capacities to establish peace and security in the West Asia and the Indian subcontinent, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani said in a meeting with Indian Defense Secretary Shri Giridhar Aramane, held on the sidelines of a conference of defense ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states in Kazakhstan.
The Iranian minister also called for close cooperation between Tehran and New Delhi in the fight against the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terrorist group and in preventing it from regaining power in the region.
Highlighting the impact of military and defense cooperation between Iran and India on the establishment of regional stability and security, General Ashtiani voiced Tehran’s readiness to promote defense interaction with New Delhi.
For his part, the Indian secretary expressed sympathy with Iran over the martyrdom of Iranian military advisers in an Israeli airstrike in Syria, stressing the need to ensure regional security and calm.
He also emphasized the necessity for stronger military cooperation with Iran in the naval sector by attending joint naval war games, conducting defense and educational research, and exchanging military students.
In February, the Iranian Navy deployed its Dena destroyer to India for a large-scale multilateral exercise.
The Indian Navy’s largest-ever multilateral naval exercise, Milan 2024, was held in the eastern port city of Visakhapatnam on the coasts of the Bay of Bengal.
Warships from the navies of 50 countries participated in the harbor phase of the drill.