Defence minister Rajnath Singh reached Iran on Saturday to discuss bilateral ties between the two countries after concluding his three-day Russia visit during which he urged the Persian Gulf countries to resolve their differences.

Rajnath Singh will meet his Iranian counterpart Brigadier General Amir Hatami, and discuss defence ties between the two nations. He arrived in the country from Moscow, where he participated in a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers.

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“Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh reached Tehran this evening. He will be meeting the Iranian Defence Minister during his visit,” the defence ministry said in a tweet.

The defence minister’s visit to Tehran comes a day after he expressed concern over the situation in the Persian Gulf and called upon countries in the region to resolve differences through dialogue based on mutual respect and sovereignty.

“A series of incidents in the Persian Gulf involving Iran, the US, and the UAE in recent weeks have flared up tension in the region. We are deeply concerned about the situation in the Persian Gulf,” Singh said in his address at a meeting of the SCO.

“We call upon countries in the region – all of which are dear and friendly to India, to resolve differences by dialogue based on mutual respect, sovereignty, and non-interference in internal affairs of each other,” he said.

n Moscow, Singh had held bilateral talks with his counterparts from Russia, China, and the Central Asian countries. Before leaving for Iran on Saturday, Singh also held bilateral talks with his counterparts from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajiskistan.

He tweeted, “I had a wonderful meeting with Uzbekistan’s Minister of Defence, Major General Kurbanov Bakhodir Nizamovich in Moscow today. Defence Cooperation remains an important pillar of India- Uzbekistan bilateral relations.

“Productive interaction with the Defence Minister of Kazakhstan, Lieutenant General Nurlan Yermekbayev. We discussed ways to add further momentum to India-Kazakhstan defence cooperation,” he said in another tweet.