New Delhi When Julie Bishop steps off the plane in Tehran on Sunday, she will become the first Australian minister to set foot in Iran for nearly 12 years.
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In an interview with Fairfax Media during an official visit to India, Ms Bishop revealed that Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had wooed her over several meetings between the two foreign ministers at the United Nations in New York.
"He invited me and I thought 2015 would be a good time to go considering the number of issues and concerns with what's happening in the Middle East that we have to discuss," Ms Bishop said.
With Iran and the US moving toward a comprehensive agreement over curbing Iran's nuclear program, Ms Bishop said the visit to Tehran would give her an opportunity to hear from directly from the Iranians how they saw the deal progressing, as well as developing a shared interest in defeating brutal terrorist groups operating in Iraq and Syria.
"Iran is deeply involved in building the capacity and defeating ISIL, so it's an opportunity to discuss our collective interest in countering this form of particularly violent and brutal terrorism," Ms Bishop said.
With Ms Bishop also set to lobby Iran to take back hundreds of failed asylum seekers held in Australian immigration detention, she said she was still cautious about the prospects of getting Iran to agree to curb its nuclear program.
"I'm very conscious of the fact that there is no agreement yet. Both sides say there is no agreement yet, so we welcome the progress that's been made, but we haven't seen the final detail yet - and the positioning that's going on at present shows that there is a lot of detail still to be resolved," Ms Bishop said.
On India, Ms Bishop said she was confident that the blossoming relationship between Australian and its Indian Ocean neighbour would continue with Prime Minister Tony Abbott on track to make another visit to the subcontinent before the end of this year.
Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Australia in almost three decades earlier this year, after Mr Abbott became the first foreign head of government to hold a formal bilateral meeting with Mr Modi after his election last year.
"We're hoping the PM (Mr Abbott) will be able to return later in the year because there is an agreement for an annual Prime Ministerial meeting and that's exceedingly positive given that it was almost three decades between visits of an Indian Prime Minister to Australia," Ms Bishop said.
Ms Bishop said she remained hopeful that Australia and India would be able to conclude a Free Trade Agreement with India this year, saying it was a major priority.
"We see this as a real opportunity to enhance the two-way trade, and investment and economic ties more generally, and I am pleased that there has been enthusiasm on the Indian side of things," Ms Bishop said.
"This is all part of our significant focus on what we call economic diplomacy, and India is not the only country with whom we are pursuing such an agreement, but it would obviously be a major and significant outcome were we to conclude such an agreement this year."
While the negotiations were still in the early stages, with Trade Minister Andrew Robb set to visit New Delhi next week, things were moving forward.
"There were some commentators who said we wouldn't be able to conclude Free Trade Agreements with China, Japan and South Korea within our first term and we did it within 12 to 18 months. I think an ambitious timetable works in our favour," Ms Bishop said.
