Hamid Ansari meets Iranian President

New Delhi, Sep 18 Vice President Hamid Ansari held a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Venezuela.

"Time for an important partner. VP Ansari meets President Rouhani of Iran on sidelines of NAM Summit," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a picture of the two leaders meeting on Friday.

This is yet another sign of New Delhi's increased engagements with Iran in recent times.

In May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Tehran during the course of which he along with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and Rouhani signed a trilateral agreement for the development of Chabahar port in Iran for enhanced connectivity with Central Asia via Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar also visited Iran.

The two-day 17th NAM Summit began in the Venezuelan island of Margarita on Friday.

NAM comprises 53 countries from Africa, 39 from Asia, 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean and two from Europe.

There are 17 countries and 10 international organisations that are observers at NAM, which came into being 55 years ago when leaders of 25 developing countries met at the 1961 Belgrade Conference.

India, one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement, hosted the 7th NAM Summit in 1983 in New Delhi.

The last NAM Summit was hosted by Iran in 2012.

IANS