Bishkek SCO Summit: PM Modi to meet Iranian President Rouhani over oil row

BISHKEK: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the Shanghai Corporation Organisation (SCO) Summit here on Friday, amid mounting tension in the Persian Gulf.

The meeting will be held against the backdrop of the US sanctions on Iran as well as Tehran's partial withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA).

The US recently announced that no fresh sanction waivers will be issued to existing importers of Iranian oil, including India.

The issue had come up during a meeting between former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif during the latter's visit to India last month. After the meeting, Swaraj had said that a decision on buying oil from Iran will be taken after the general elections.

Modi had met Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani here on Thursday.