India's Pipeline Into Iran Could Help Launch A Satellite Amitav Ranjan of Indian Express reports that New Delhi plans to woo Tehran with offers of greater intelligence sharing, revival of defence training, as well as a possible launch of the latter’s satellite, but will remain non-committal on the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. India’s objective, drafted a month after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got a second term in July, is to engage more with Iran at a time when the West is treating with an opposite approach over that country's nuclear program.

“Increased isolation of Iran provides us with an opportunity... inviting the Iranian Foreign Minister to visit India at this juncture would be viewed as a big gesture by Iran,” an External Affairs Ministry official was quoted as saying during an inter-ministerial strategy meet. A fresh invitation was sent, following which Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is arriving on Monday for a two-day visit to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and meet counterpart S M Krishna.