Iranian Ambassador to India Ali Chegeni made the announcement in an interview with The Print, saying that the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian plans to visit New Delhi later this month for the India-Iran Joint Economic Commission, which will “herald a new era” for the countries.
He added that bilateral ties are poised to reach the next level under Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raeisi.
“We have no limit, no ban, no barrier in developing our relationship with India … India used to be our big customer of oil, and we were the first country to export oil to India based on the rupee. It was recognition of the rupee as international money, instead of using the dollar or some other currency. We did that also to buy commodities from India,” Chegeni said.
“For oil, we expect India to begin (purchases). Of course, we are not deciding on behalf of our Indian friends; Indian authorities should do that. But from our side, there is no problem in exporting oil and gas, petrochemical and even non-oil goods. There is a big capacity,” the ambassador added.
According to Chegeni, two-way trade between India and Iran, which had exceeded $17 billion in 2018-19, had the potential to reach $30-35 billion by this fiscal had the oil imports not been stopped by India.
“If India starts taking oil, gas and other items from Iran, then both sides can have balanced trade,” he said.
According to this report, in May 2019, under the pressure of stringent economic sanctions from the Trump administration, New Delhi had brought oil imports from Tehran down to zero.
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