The Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid who left for Tehran on Friday, after meeting his guest and Azerbaijan counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov, is likely to commit $ 100 million for development of Chabahar port for which the Iranian government has planned five stages of development.

India and Iran are likely to sign three Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) relating to water resources, cooperation between foreign policy institutes.

Khurshid is slated to co-chair the 17th India-Iran Joint Commission along with his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi in May 4-5.

The Indian External Affairs Minister will inaugurate the first Indian Cultural Centre in Tehran and interact with the Indian community. He will meet the Iranian President, senior officials and political leadership of Iran.

The two leaders are also likely to discuss setting up of a fertiliser plant in south-east Iran and prospects of Iran-Pakistan-India oil pipeline.

Due to sanctions by Western powers on Iran-India has suffered. Despite India managing to get a waiver from US to continue buying crude oil from Iran, its crude oil mports from that country has declined by more than 26.5% in 2012-13. There are problems of payment, insurance and shipping. The two leaders will discuss these problems and find out ways for increasing India’s exports to Iran to balance the bilateral trade. India is in favour of increasing food and pharmaceuticals exports to Iran