17 Nov 2003

INDIAN FORCES ENCIRCLING PAKISTAN

From Our Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: India's bid to encircle Pakistan militarily is fast becoming a reality. It has already set up its first overseas military bases at Farkhor and Ayni in Tajikistan and now it is pursuing Iran to gain access to Iranian bases in the event of a war with Pakistan.

With Afghanistan already in New Delhi's kitty, Islamabad now finds itself in the middle of hostile neighbours.

India's ace defence analyst Rahul Bedi claims that both India and Iran have entered into a secret accord that gives India access to the Iranian bases.

Though a spokesman of the Iranian Embassy here denied any such agreement, saying Iran was a well-wisher of both the countries, a top defence source says India has redoubled its efforts to build a new Iranian strategic port at Chahbahar, close to Pakistani province of Baluchistan. The port will provide India a land route to Central Asia and Afghanistan.

Last March, India and Iran conducted their first-ever joint naval exercises. Such close military cooperation between India and Iran is "unprecedented," says Delhi-based Rahul Bedi of Jane's Defence Weekly.

India and Iran have common military interests in the way that both have same Russian equipment like MiGs that need upgrading. As part of an agreement worth more than US $25 billion signed last January during President Khatami's visit to India, India is expected to help upgrade Iran's fleet of Russian submarines and MiG aircraft.  

Iran is seeking to build up its missile and military software capabilities. It has also acquired four Russian Kilo-class submarines.

Describing, Indo-Iranian alliance a stabilizing factor for the region, Bedi traces their cooperation building up in Afghanistan. Their common interest in Kabul was to overthrow Taliban. For the sake of Taliban, Pakistan lost its important ally in the Muslim world and hence made its western borders insecure.

A recent report that Dr YSR Prasad, a former chairman and managing director of the Nuclear Corporation of India, has taken up an assignment in Iran in 2000 is being cited as proof that India was also helping Iran to develop nuclear weapons.  He is believed to have helped Iran build technical and physical infrastructure for its nuclear power plants.

Besides, Indian government has also permitted two Iranian students to carry out post-doctoral research at the prestigious science institution Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.

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