India attaches high importance to Iran relations: New Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has highlighted the significance of Indo-Iranian relations, expressing New Delhi’s keenness on expanding bilateral ties.

"The prime minister expressed readiness on the part of India to further strengthen bilateral relations, including in the areas of trade, investment, oil and gas, connectivity, port development," Indian media quoted a PM office statement as saying during the premier’s Monday meeting with visiting Iranian Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Tayyebnia.

The Indian prime minister also pointed to his ‘fruitful’ July meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the joint summits of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Russian city of Ufa.

Iran’s Economy Minister Tayyebnia is visiting India for a bilateral Joint Commission meeting co-chaired by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

In the Joint Commission meeting, Swaraj said India considers Iran as an important partner and expressed satisfaction at the growing bilateral interaction in diverse areas.

“She underlined the efforts underway to enhance bilateral economic cooperation in energy, infrastructure, including shipping, ports and railways, and trade and commerce. She stressed that connectivity afforded by Indian participation in [Iran’s southern] Chabahar Port will facilitate linking Afghanistan and Central Asia with India. The Iranian side suggested participation of India’s public and private sectors in development of Chabahar Port and Chabahar Free Trade Zone (FTZ),” Indian media reports quoted a statement by the country’s Ministry of External Affairs.

Chabahar is the closest and best access point of Iran to the Indian Ocean and Iran has devised serious plans to turn into a transit hub for immediate access to markets in the northern part of the Indian Ocean and Central Asia.

Indian officials said earlier this month that New Delhi will finalize a much-awaited deal with Tehran within a few weeks over the development of the strategic port of Chabahar.

Based on a preliminary agreement signed between the two countries last May, India will invest $85 million over the construction of two berths at Chabahar port which is in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-and-Baluchestan Province.

Tehran and New Delhi also have long-running energy ties. Iran’s media reported on Friday that the country had started talks with India over increasing Iranian oil exports to the country as well as retrieving the petrodollars that have been blocked in New Delhi due to US-led sanctions against Tehran. 

India imported an average of 249,000 barrels of oil from Iran over a period of seven months starting April. The figure shows an increase of 5.6 percent compared to the same period last year. 

India is seen as Iran's biggest oil client after China. However, New Delhi was forced to slash crude purchases from Iran due to the US-led sanctions which hit Iran’s energy sector back in 2012.

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