Iran-India Relations with Future Prospects

International relations concern people and cultures throughout the world. The complexity scope of the interactions makes international relations a challenging issue. Relations between India and Iran have been deepening with respect to most issues, especially security, energy, and the North-South Transportation Corridor. In January 2003, the two nations signed a number of agreements, including a “Memorandum of Understanding on the Road Map to Strategic Cooperation.” This research paper focuses on India and Iran strategic relationship according to Neorealism theory that emphasizes the importance of the structure of an international system and its role as the primary determinant of state behavior. The aim of this research is to study various components in establishing strategic relations between countries in international system through determining the most important affecting factors such as system, security, and economy in shaping strategic relations. The type of research design is cross-sectional design with quantitative data collected through subjects’ responses to a questionnaire. The results of the research indicate that India and Iran complement each other in the energy sector and share an interest in stabilizing Afghanistan and connecting resource-rich Central Asia to the Indian Ocean. Internationally, the future of India and Iran relations will depend on two factors: how India manages to maintain the right balance between its growing relations with Israel, the US, and GCC countries and on the other hand, what will be the nature and level of Iran’s engagement with India if and when its relations improve with the US and EU.