Foreign Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs attends Ali Khamenei’s memorial service at the Iranian Embassy in Delhi

The Narendra Modi government was represented by Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margarita on the last day of Shehilom (40-day mourning) for late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, Margherita paid formal respects on behalf of the Government of India at the 40-day mourning ceremony organized by the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi.

“India-Iran relations are based on deep-rooted civilizational, cultural and people-to-people ties,” Jaiswal said in a post on X.

Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israeli air strike on February 28, an incident that plunged the West Asia region into a six-week war before a ceasefire was announced last Tuesday.

India offered its condolences on the death of the Iranian Supreme Leader About a week later, Foreign Minister Vikram Misri signed the book of condolence at the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi on March 5. Al-Masry visited the Iranian embassy and signed the condolence letter on behalf of the Government of India.

India has also repeatedly called for dialogue and diplomacy to end the Iran-US conflict early, stressing the need to secure the interests of the nearly 10 million Indians living in West Asia and prevent disruption to trade and energy supply chains, with potentially “dangerous consequences” for the country’s economy.