ABSTRACT
India and Iran have been two great proximate civilisations in history. In modern times, they share many similarities — both are civilisational, multi-ethnic states, both have extra-regional ambitions, both have had a strong attachment to an independent foreign policy for several decades. However, as India emerges as a high-growth economy and regional, possibly global power, and as Iran’s conflicts with the West sharpen, the relationship between the two is subject to complex pulls and pressures, convergences and divergences. How their relationship develops could be critical for major questions of war and peace in the region, besides being of major import to global dimensions of trade and energy.
