Iran Warships On Three-day Goodwill Visit To Mumbai

New Delhi, Dec 7, IRNA -- Iranian warships have come calling to Mumbai on a goodwill visit as part of the bilateral defence ties with India. The Iranian warships — destroyer Alborz, helicopter-carrying tanker Bandar Abbas and a Russian-origin Kilo-class submarine Younos — 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 zone, a leading English daily The Times of India reported here today quoting said an official as said. The Iranian delegation, along with their ambassador, consul 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, the daily added. Though India and Iran have had long-standing defense ties, they got derailed due to the US-led international sanctions on the country for allegedly actively pursuing an active uranium enrichment program that could have led to development of nuclear weapons. Iran and India have shared a cordial relationship. The Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean play important roles in Indo-Iran relations, especially since more than 90 percent of the trade of both countries is sea-borne and passes through this region, said the official. The ongoing visit by the 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 programs. 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. 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./end