TEHRAN -- The fourth Asian Security Conference began in New Delhi with the Iranian delegation being led by Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS).

The two-day seminar organized by India's Institute of Defense Analyses (IDSA) will focus on "Asian Security Strategies in a Period of Uncertainty."

IDSA Director K. Santhanam said here that it has been chosen to "address the rapid changes that are taking place in the international security environment."

The seminar is divided into five sessions. The first session began Monday morning and focused on global political and military challenges after September 11, 2001. There are four speakers from the U.S., Russia, India and China.

The second session will be on regional political and military strategies in which speakers will cover the five major Asian regions of South Asia, Central Asia, the Persian Gulf, Eurasia and Southeast Asia.

The third session will focus on national strategies and perspectives. There will be ten presentations from Asian states on country-specific strategies to meet the new challenges.

The issue of global and regional economic challenges will be taken up in the fourth session in which papers will be presented by India, the Philippines, the EU and the Asian development bank.

Iran represents the entire Persian Gulf and India look ahead towards Tehran as a prominent power both geographically and historically, says an Indian expert.

Prof. T. Shreedhar of the Institute of Defense Analyses (IDSA) told IRNA in an interview on the sidelines of the two-day seminar on 'Asian Security Strategies in a Period of Uncertainty' on Monday that India and Iran's relations have gone from plateau to a higher level and both countries vow to help each other in combating terrorism.

Outlining the Persian Gulf security as very important and significant, Shreedhar said there is an international seminar in the offing with Iran as a participant in future and there would be permanent and regular dialogue in sorting of each other problems.