The protest test in India-Iran ties

General Studies Paper 2

• Context: 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.

India and Iran relations:

• 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.