Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to attend the 16th NAM summit on a visit that will also see him holding bilateral talks with the top Iranian leadership and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
Dr. Singh was received by Iran’s Minister of Finance, Shamseddin Hosseini. The visit is the first in a decade to Iran by an Indian Prime Minister after Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited the country in 2001.
On the sidelines of the summit of 120 non-aligned nations, Dr. Singh will also hold meetings with the Iranian leadership, including Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and will review bilateral relations.
Dr. Singh’s bilateral meetings with Mr. Khamenei and Mr. Ahmadinejad assume significance, as they will take place at a time when the U.S. is pushing India to reduce engagement with Iran and implement sanctions imposed by some countries over its controversial nuclear programme.
Keywords: Manmohan Singh, NAM summit
Given the fact that India has been one of the founding fathers of NAM,
it is
rather pathetic how little the present generation of our people seem
to
grasp the relevance of its aims, and also how little the media exposes
the
truth of the grave world today. NAM, to be sure, is the perfect
platform for
independent nations today. I trust India's PM to be doing the wisest
for us
at the current summit in Iran.
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