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Monday, Apr 21, 2008
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Ahmadinejad to visit India

Special Correspondent

Focus on pipeline, LNG

We believe that we understand Iran better: Narayanan
“There is a great deal happening between India and Iran”

New Delhi: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will pay his first visit to India on April 29, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan said here on Sunday.

Though Mr. Ahmadinejad will be in New Delhi only for a few hours — he will essentially be stopping on his way back to Tehran after a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka — he will meet President Pratibha Devisingh Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Among the bilateral issues to be discussed are the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, the technical negotiations for which have almost concluded, and India’s desire to execute a contract for the import of LNG (liquefied natural gas) that was struck three years ago but never implemented as the price of oil rose dramatically soon after.

Mr. Narayanan announced the visit while answering a question on India’s Iran policy at the IISS-Citi India Global Forum.

“There is a great deal happening between India and Iran which is not in the public realm; what we have avoided is getting involved in any conflict diplomacy,” the NSA said when asked whether the big powers were taking India for granted by excluding it from their efforts to find a negotiated solution to the nuclear standoff with Tehran.

“We are not involved in the P5+1 and we don’t wish to be,” he said, referring to the group of five permanent United Nations Security Council members and Germany. India, he added, would never thrust itself into any process. At the same time, India did not believe that the only dialogue should be between the P5+1 and Iran. “We have capabilities and capacities. We believe that we understand Iran better.”

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