Iran-India Strategic Ties: A History of Parallel Interests Despite Ideological Friction
Despite the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei amid the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, India-Iran bilateral relations have been characterised throughout his tenure by a pragmatic strategic partnership that coexisted alongside Khamenei's recurring criticism of India's domestic policies.
Khamenei publicly criticised India over the 2020 Delhi riots, the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and in September 2024 included India in a list of countries he accused of persecuting Muslims.
India's Ministry of External Affairs formally condemned his September 2024 remarks as interference in internal affairs.
Yet throughout these tensions, the two countries maintained substantive economic and strategic cooperation: trade links, the Chabahar port project, and India's quiet recognition of Iran's role in stabilising Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited the Iranian embassy in Delhi on 5 March 2026 to convey condolences, underlining India's intent to maintain ties through the transition of power in Tehran.
India-Iran Relations: A Layered Historical Partnership
India and Iran share deep civilisational and cultural ties — Persian was a court language in Mughal India, and both nations trace bilateral engagement to the ancient Silk Road era. In the post-independence period, bilateral ties were recalibrated after the 1979 Islamic Revolution but never severed.
The durability of India-Iran ties despite Khamenei's criticism reflects a realpolitik calculation by both sides — India needed Iran's strategic geography; Iran needed India's economic engagement to partially offset Western isolation.
Chabahar Port and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)
Chabahar, located on Iran's Makran coast on the Gulf of Oman, is Iran's only port with direct access to the Indian Ocean and is of transformative strategic value to India.
With Iran in turmoil and a power transition underway in Tehran, India's Chabahar investment and INSTC connectivity ambitions face deep uncertainty, requiring careful diplomatic management.
The OIC and India's Kashmir Diplomacy
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), established in 1969 and headquartered in Jeddah, is the second-largest intergovernmental organisation after the UN, with 57 member states. India is not a member but is frequently the subject of OIC resolutions on Kashmir.
Key Details
- Pakistan has consistently raised the Kashmir issue at OIC, seeking resolutions critical of India.
- Iran's 1994 refusal to back such a resolution was a notable diplomatic shield for India within the Islamic world.
- Post-Khamenei, India's relations with the new Iranian leadership will shape whether Tehran continues this supportive posture or pivots under domestic and regional pressures.
- India's consistent position is that the OIC has no locus standi on Indian internal affairs, particularly on Jammu and Kashmir.
Khamenei's dual role as India's occasional critic and diplomatic protector at the OIC captures the contradictory but pragmatically managed nature of India-Iran ties, a dynamic that will need recalibration under new Iranian leadership.
- Khamenei Supreme Leader since 1989; death confirmed amid US-Israeli strikes in 2026
- India-Iran Chabahar 10-year operational contract: Signed May 2024
- Iran's share of India's crude oil imports in 2008–09: ~16.5% (second-largest supplier)
- India halted Iranian oil imports in 2019 following US reimposition of sanctions post-JCPOA withdrawal
- INSTC length: 7,200 km multimodal corridor connecting India to Russia and Europe via Iran
- OIC membership: 57 states; India not a member
- September 2024: Khamenei included India among countries accused of persecuting Muslims; MEA issued formal condemnation
- Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Iranian embassy 5 March 2026