Greetings from the Red Carpet Club in Tokyo’s Narita Airport, where I am awaiting my (now delayed) flight back to DC.
I came across this interesting little document, a letter from six eight Senators to Indian President Prime Minister Singh asking him to suspend India’s nascent mil-to-mil relationship with Iran:
While we applaud India for enforcing international sanctions by ceasing the export of nuclear-related equipment to Iran, we were disturbed to read of recent reports that Iran and India have agreed to form a “joint defense working group.” This agreement, which is purported to build off of the India-Iran strategic partnership accord of 2003, will serve to undermine the efforts of the international community to isolate the regime in Tehran. [Full Text]
Vivek Raghuvanshi first reported the joint defense working group in Defense News. Iranian diplomats told Raghuvanshi they hoped “to spur defense cooperation, which had been low-key despite the strategic agreement. Under the 2003 accord, India agreed to provide Iran’s military with hardware, training, maintenance and modernization.”