By IANS,
New Delhi : Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi comes here next week to extend an invitation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Iran for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in August.
Salehi arrives on a two-day visit May 31 during which he will also meet his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna. He is expected to call on Manmohan Singh and discuss issues related to the India-Iran relations.
“He (Salehi) is coming as special envoy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to deliver a personal invitation to the prime minister to visit Iran for the NAM summit,” Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told reporters here.
Iran will August-end host the 16th summit of NAM, an international organisation co-founded by India. It comprises of around 120 countries not aligned to any power blocs.
India is under pressure from the US to cut its imports of Iranian oil in the wake of US sanctions but New Delhi has said it will continue to import Iranian oil as it is necessary for its energy security.
India has also made it clear that it will only abide by UN sanctions and is not bound to accept unilateral sanctions by the West.
India currently imports 10-11 percent of its oil requirements from Iran.