India & Iran to hold FO talks in Tehran; trilateral with Armenia soon

India and Iran will hold foreign office consultations this week in Tehran to boost ties. This will follow Saturday's telephone conversation between the national security advisers of the two countries.

An official from the Ministry of External Affairs will lead the delegation to the Iranian capital to meet his counterpart. Talks among other issues will focus on boosting Chabahar Port operations as well as the International North-South Transport Corridor, according to people familiar with the development.

This will be the first structured dialogue between two sides since the military conflict between Iran and US-Israel in June. The India-Iran bilateral will be followed by India-Iran-Armenia trilateral, a format that has been developed over the past few years to work towards connectivity between India and Armenia via Iran. This meeting could be an opportunity to get a debriefing on the recent peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On Saturday, national security adviser Ajit Doval and secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani held a telephone conversation ahead of Larijani's proposed visit to New Delhi.

During the phone call, the two sides discussed the expansion of economic cooperation, security and defence ties between the two countries, as well as the development of the Chabahar Port project, according to a readout by Iran.