Prime Minster Narendra Modi visited Iran

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 23 May 2016 concluded his two-day visit to Iran. During his visit, Modi held discussions with President Hassan Rouhani and also inked 12 bilateral agreements with Iran.

He also met the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to whom he gifted the reproduction of the seventh-century manuscript of the Holy Quran attributed to Hazrat Ali, the fourth caliph.

Written in Kufic script, this manuscript is a prized possession of the Ministry of Culture's Rampur Raza Library.

Highlights of the visit

• Two countries signed 12 agreements including the pact on developing the strategic Chabahar port

• The two nations also released a Joint Statement titled Civilisational Connect, Contemporary Context.

• Prime Minister and Hassan Rouhani lead delegation level talks in Tehran.

• He gifted reproductions of Ghalib's collection of poetry in Persian 'Kulliyat-e-Farsi-e-Ghalib', as well as Sumair Chand's Persian translation of Ramayana to Dr Rouhani.

• Modi visited Bhai Ganga Singh Gurudwara in Tehran.

• In Tehran, he witnessed the inauguration of Conference on India and Iran, Two Great Civilizations: Retrospect and Prospects'.

• He released rare manuscript, Kalileh Wa-Dimneh, which is the Persian translation of the Panchatantra.

Besides the bilateral pact to develop the Chabahar port for which India will invest 500 million US dollars, a trilateral Agreement on Transport and Transit Corridor was also signed by India, Afghanistan and Iran.

Modi's visit, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 15 years, came months after the lifting of international sanctions on Iran following Tehran's historic nuclear deal with the Western powers over its contentious atomic programme. Earlier, the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited the country in April 2001.

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