India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will leave for Iran on August 28 to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, which will be preceded by crucial bilateral talks with Iran's supreme leader of Islamic Revolution Ayotollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, IRNA reported.
'We had indeed proposed to schedule a meeting with Ayatollah Khemenei. During the meeting, the Prime Minister will raise all issues for India-Iran bilateral relations and issues of interest and concern to us," Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said while briefing reporters here on Prime Minister's four-day Iran visit.
'Peace and security is, indeed, our primary concern given just how important the entire West Asia region, Persian Gulf region, in particular, is for India's security and for Indian economy, both in terms of oil imports and our exports. So, this is our own concern and we don't have to take anybody else's concern...,' he said.
India attaches great importance to ties with Iran and the Prime Minister will also seek to boost cooperation in key areas, including trade during his meetings with the Iranian leadership, Mathai said, adding that the two sides will also review the status of bilateral ties.
Mathai also said meetings with other leaders are also being scheduled on the sidelines of the Summit on Thursday and Friday.
A host of meeting with the leaders of other NAM countries, including Pakistan, is also likely to take place on the sidelines of the 16th Summit of 120-nation grouping,
This will be Manmohan Singh's third NAM summit after Havana (2006) and Sharm el Sheikh (2009) and first bilateral visit at this level to Iran after 2001.