TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday hailed as “unbreakable” ties with India during his meeting with India’s visiting top diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Tehran.

Zarif tweeted that he had “excellent discussions” with the Indian minister of external affairs on “closer bilateral relations” as well as “regional and global issues” affecting the two countries during the 19th Joint Commission Meeting.

In a tweet on recent Iran and India talks, wrote “Our ties are ancient, historic & unbreakable.”

Jaishankar also took to Twitter to commend the meeting as “very productive”.

He said the two sides “agreed on accelerating” a joint project to develop Iran’s Chabahar port in the country’s southeast and had “a very good conversation on the regional and global picture”.

“India and Iran will work together closely on their shared interests,” Jaishankar said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Zarif and Jaishankar, who co-chaired the meeting, signed a memorandum of understanding.

Jaishankar arrived in the Iranian capital Sunday on a two-day visit. He is expected to meet with President Hassan Rouhani on Monday.

The Chabahar port complex on Iran’s coast along the Sea of Oman is being developed as a transportation corridor for land-locked Afghanistan.

In May 2016, India signed a deal with Iran to develop two terminals with five berths at the Shahid Beheshti area in Chabahar.

Under the agreement, India would build a 600-meter (1,969 feet) cargo terminal and a 640-meter container terminal. However, only a portion of the two berths has been finished because of heightened tensions between the United States and Iran after President Donald Trump took office in November 2016 that culminated with the reimposition of economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic last year.

In December 2018, India took over operations at part of the Shahid Beheshti port and now hopes to soon start full operations at a portion of it.

The port could potentially open the way for millions of dollars in trade for Afghanistan and cut its dependence on Pakistan’s port of Gwadar, located 166 km to the east.

Reuters contributed to this story.