The protest test in India-Iran ties

Source: The post is based on the article “The protest test in India-Iran ties” published in The Indian Express on 18^th February 2023.

Syllabus: GS 2 – International Relations

Relevance: India and Iran bilateral relations

News: Iran foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has recently cancelled his visit to the Raisina meet in India.

This is because the event showed a video of Iranian women cutting their hair during a non-violent protest that began last September in Iran. This event highlights the changing bilateral relations between the two nations.

How has been the relations between India and Iran?

India has been quiet about the protest that happened in Iran.

However, at the UN Human Rights Council session, India did not vote against the resolution for a fact-finding mission on human rights violations committed by Iran to suppress the protests.

Moreover, the event organiser in Delhi refused to pull out the video as demanded by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

India also ended its energy trade with Iran when the Trump administration reimposed sanctions against it in 2019.

India’s proximity to the US and Iran’s increasing proximity to China have also been a challenge to ties.

Iran was among the Islamic capitals that reacted strongly during the Nupur Sharma blasphemy row.

These all events show that there has a been decline in the bilateral relation of both the countries.

However, both of them have joined hands on issues such as connectivity through Chabahar, terrorism in the region and Afghanistan, etc.

Hence, despite declining bilateral relations between the two nations, these issues will help them to move ahead together.