The mediating country, Qatar, on Sunday (June 21, 2026) confirmed the start of talks between the United States and Iran in Switzerland aimed at a permanent end to the West Asia war.

In a statement, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry announced “the launch of the Lake Lucerne Summit and the first meeting of the high-level committee with the participation of representatives from the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the two mediating states, the State of Qatar and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan”.

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The gas-rich emirate added that it hoped the meetings would “lead to a comprehensive and lasting agreement addressing all aspects covered by the Memorandum of Understanding”, referring to an accord signed by the U.S. and Iran earlier this week.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Saturday (June 20, 2026) reached Iran unannounced — the first visit to the country by any senior Pakistani official after Washington and Tehran signed an agreement aimed at restoring peace in West Asia.

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Mr. Naqvi reached Mashhad in Iran on Saturday (June 19, 2026), reported Geo News, without disclosing further details. Later, Iranian media reported that mr. Naqvi was on his way to the capital city, Tehran, to hold talks with senior Iranian officials.

According to the state-owned IRNA news agency, Mr. Naqvi, during his visit, will “monitor the ongoing negotiations” between Iran and the U.S..

The U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) this week, which led to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and marked the beginning of a 60-day negotiation window aimed at restoring peace in West Asia.

Pakistan—the key mediator in the negotiations – is also a signatory to the memorandum as a guarantor. No official announcement was made in Islamabad about Mr. Naqvi’s trip, but it is believed that he would discuss the upcoming technical—level talks between Washington and Tehran, which were expected to begin on June 19, but were postponed.

Axios reported on Saturday (June 20) that White House envoy Steve Witkoff was on his way to Switzerland, where the first round of talks after the MoU signing is expected to take place, with a focus on Iran’s nuclear stockpile. It further cited an unnamed source saying Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is also planning to travel to Switzerland.

Mr. Naqvi, who is believed to be close to Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, made at least three strategic visits to Iran to bridge diplomatic gaps and resolve differences with the U.S. ahead of the signing of the MoU.

He has also been regularly meeting the U.S. Charge de’ Affaires Natalie Baker in Islamabad, according to official sources.

The ‘peace deal’ between Iran and the U.S. over the Strait of Hormuz was “very welcome” for a country like India that imports oil, natural gas, and fertilizer, V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Government of India, said on Monday. He further hoped that “it lasts”. He advocated for the public sector leadership to “accelerate nuclear energy to the seriousness our present pace does not necessarily fully reflect.”

Delivering his virtual inaugural address on ‘Public Sector Leadership in Shaping India’s Journey to a Developed Nation: From Legacy to Future Readiness’, as part of the CPCL Sooper Leadership Series organised by the Madras Management Center in Chennai, Mr. Nageswaran said: “Public sector leadership must build strategic reserves across the critical commodity spectrum, not just crude oil.”

He reasoned that nuclear power was “immune to choke points” and it provided the base load that a nation of fabs and data centres would need. Flagging a new set of problems, he said the first was resource and energy security. “Modern manufacturing, semiconductors, batteries, defence systems, runs on molecules. No molecules, no manufacturing.” The second was research and development. “If the private sector discounts the future too heavily, the public sector must be the patient investor that does not discount the future so heavily.”

Public enterprises and public resource institutions should be where frontier capability was built and then shared in energy, materials, and in process technology, he said.

Nurturing enterprises

The third was the nurturing of small and medium enterprises. “India’s strength will not come from a handful of large firms alone,” he said.

Underlining that Germany’s industrial debt rested on its Mittelstand, the CEA said thousands of mid-sized engineering firms with deep technical capability sustained by patient capital and a culture of quality. “India needs its own version of Mittelstand,” he asserted.

Observing that the defining advantage of the public sector was its ability to think and act over long horizons, Mr. Nageswaran said: “That is exactly the capacity India most needs now and most lacks elsewhere. Public sector leadership is not a relic of an old economic model. In the world we are entering, it is an instrument of national strategy.”

Pointing out that the era of cheap global capital was over, he said that long-term interest rates in the advanced economies have crossed 5%. “Money that once changed yield into emerging markets now has alternatives at home. Every dollar that comes to India must clear a higher bar than before”.

Chenna Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) managing director H. Shankar, professor Ashwin Mahalingam of the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT-Madras, MMA executive director group captain (retd.) R. Vijayakumar, and former chairman of Indian Oil Corporation and CPCL B. Ashok, were present at the event.