In addition to being India's prime minister, Narendra Modi is also a published poet. While speaking in India, though, Modi's comments tend to be much more prosaic. Which is probably why on his first visit abroad in nearly two months, Modi took every opportunity to quote poetry while in Iran, although he didn't draw from his own work.
"India and Iran are not new friends. Our dosti is as old as history," Modi said in his first media statement on the trip, while acknowledging that the ties need some rebuilding. He added: "Where we are now and where we could be is most beautifully said in a couplet from Ghalib."
"जनूनत गरबे नफ्से-खुद तमाम अस्त ज़े-काशी पा-बे काशान नीम गाम अस्त
(Once we make up our mind, the distance between Kaashi and Kaashan is only half a step.)
(Translations are from the official speech transcripts).
New Delhi is seeking to build on its age-old partnership with Tehran, which suffered over the last decade as America imposed sanctions over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
While India was negotiating its own civil nuclear deal with Washington, DC, it cut down the amount of oil it imported from Iran and voted against the country at the International Atomic Energy Agency, somewhat souring the traditional friendship between the nations.
For its part, Tehran also dithered on the Chabahar port project which India has, since 2003, seen as a crucial element in its ties with Iran, because the port would give it access to the resources and markets of Afghanistan and Central Asia.
With the Western sanctions now over, the two countries are hoping to make up for lost ground, and with that comes the inevitable invocation of age-old ties, as in the Ghalib couplet above. Later Modi spoke at the release of a rare Persian manuscript of the Kalila wa Dimna, a collection of tales that is well-known in the Arab and Iranian world, and is actually based on the Jataka and Panchatantra stories from India.
"शक्कर-शिकन शवंद हमे बुलबुलाने-अजम
ज़े ईन क़दे-हिन्दी कि बे-तेहरान मी रसद्
(All the nightingales of Iran get this fresh sweet arriving in Tehran from India.)
Fresh sweets indeed came a-plenty from India.
Modi signed a number of deals with Iran, including paving the way for New Delhi to clear its $6.5 billion oil debt to the country, reiterated a $150 million credit line for the Chabahar port, another Rs 3,000 crore credit line for the import of steel rails and an agreement that will see the IRCON build a $1.6 billion railway line. Indian companies are also set to invest $20 billion in energy and industrial projects in the port city's free trade zone.
All of this means there is new momentum in ties between the country, particularly after some rather pesky details on the Chabahar port project were ironed out. The deal actually is a trilateral one with Afghanistan, and is aimed at giving India more leverage against Pakistan and China, which have their own port project nearby.
Chabahar has in fact even attracted the interest of other mutual allies like Japan, who also want to collaborate, which if it pans out will bind India and Iran even closer together. Or, as Modi put it with lines from Hafez in his remarks at the Chabahar connectivity event:
रोज़े- हिज्रो-शबे-फ़ुर्क़ते-यार आख़र शुद
ज़दम इन फ़ालो-गुज़श्त अख़्तरो कार आख़र शुद्
(Days of separation are over; [the] night of wait is coming to an end; Our friendship will stay forever.)
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