- Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in India on Monday morning to hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 16 May
- Several Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) are expected to be signed between India and Palestine during the visit.
- Palestine President’s visit comes ahead of PM Modi’s scheduled visit to Israel in July
- Modi will be the first Indian PM to visit Israel
Iran Wants to Triple Gas Prices for India
Iran wants India to pay more than triple the gas price for award of the coveted Farzad-B natural gas block to ONGC Videsh (OVL).
Iran wants India to buy all of the natural gas to be produced from the Persian Gulf block at a price equivalent to the rate Qatar charges for selling liquefied natural gas (LNG) to India under a long-term deal.
Qatar, as per a revised formula agreed upon in December 2015, sells 7.5 million tonnes a year of LNG to Petronet LNG Ltd – India's biggest gas importer – at a price of $7-plus per million British thermal unit.
The rate being sought by Iran is triple of $2.3 per mmBtu rate OVL is willing to pay for the gas during low global oil prices. If global rates rise, OVL is willing to pay $4.3 per mmBtu, sources privy to the development said.
When oil prices move up, rates of LNG from Qatar would also rise.
President Abbas Arrives in New Delhi
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in New Delhi on Monday, for a four-day visit during which he will hold extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on key bilateral, regional and international issues, including the Middle East peace process.
Ahead of Abbas' visit, India reiterated its "political support" to the Palestinian cause and had said it continued to assist developmental projects there.
The visit will provide an opportunity for reviewing the entire gamut of bilateral relations, the Middle East peace process, and regional and international issues, external affairs ministry said.
Several MoUs Expected to be Signed
The ministry of external affairs in a statement on Sunday said that several Memorandums of Understanding are expected to be signed during Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas’s four-day visit to India.
“India and Palestine enjoy historically close and friendly ties. Apart from the political support to the Palestinian cause, India continues to support developmental projects in Palestine by extending technical and financial assistance,” the ministry had said in a release yesterday.
The statement assumes significance given that there have been commentaries on the increasing proximity between the Modi government and Israel which may have a bearing on New Delhi's relations with Palestine.
In July, Modi will travel to Israel, the first Indian prime minister to do so.
During his trip to India, Abbas will visit C-DAC (the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) in Noida tomorrow to forge cooperation between Palestine-India Techno Park, being built by India in Palestine, and the Indian IT industry
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