The Iranian warships — destroyer Alborz, helicopter-carrying tanker Bandar Abbas and a Russian-origin Kilo-class submarine Younes — entered the Mumbai harbor on Thursday as part of the three-day visit.
"The Iranian warships, with a crew of 544 personnel, are on a routine overseas deployment. They are docked in the civilian area, not the naval area. The Iranian delegation, along with their ambassador, counsel general and senior officers, will call on Western Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha and also take part in other exchanges during the visit," said an official.
Though India and Iran have had long-standing defence ties, they got derailed due to the US-led international sanctions on the country for allegedly actively pursuing an active uranium enrichment programme that could have led to development of nuclear weapons.
"Iran and India have shared a cordial relationship. The Gulf and Indian Ocean play an important role in Indo-Iran relations, especially since more than 90% of the trade of both countries is sea-borne and passes through this region," said the official.
The ongoing visit by Iranian warships has come after quite a while, though they have docked in ports like Kochi in the past. India's military ties with Iran have, by and large, been restricted to some training and exchange programmes. Apart from holding a few low-level joint naval exercises in the past, India even helped the Iranian Navy to upgrade its Russian-origin Kilo-class submarines in the mid-1990s.
Much like the international community, India too has been against a nuclear-armed Iran but believes that the country has the right to develop peaceful use of nuclear energy while fulfilling all its international legal obligations and commitments.
The international sanctions against Iran are now in the process of being eased a bit after an interim pact with negotiators from the US, Russia, France, China, Germany and the UK, with "a final comprehensive agreement" to be thrashed out in the coming months.
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