Indian minister: India resists pressure not to expand ties with Iran

Visiting Indian Minister of Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal said here on Thursday that India will not bow down to any pressures regarding expansion of cooperation with Iran. “India resists any pressure on not boosting cooperation with Iran, therefore we import more than 20 percent of our oil demands from Iran,“ he told reporters after a meeting with Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou. Bansal said, “I had constructive talks with the Iranian side and discussed various subjects on expanding cooperation in water fields.' He indicated that Iran and India have enjoyed good relations since centuries ago and India knows no limitation on expansion of cooperation with this country so it keeps discussions to boost mutual ties in future. The Indian minister described the last visit between the Iranian President and Indian prime minister in New York as positive and called on Iran to consider India as its partner in different fields of energy. “Iran has very rich experiences in dam construction and related fields and therefore India is ready to benefit from the experiences in its plans to expand India's economic infrastructure, Bansal said. Urging Iranian companies to invest in India, he said Indians and Iranians can have good interactions while there are more than five thousand big dams all over India.