Indian External Affairs Miniter Sushma clarified to her Iranian counterpart that India abided by only United Nations sanctions and not by any other individual country like the US. Earlier this month, the US Prez Donald Trump had made a strong announcement of withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and ordered sanctions to be reimposed to that country.
Sushma Swaraj stood her own ground on the issue and said that the Indian stand was independent of any other country’s decision.While addressing a press conference at the completion of 4years in power of the Narendra Modi led government, she said that India followed only UN sanctions and not unilateral sanctions by any country.
Iranian External Affairs Minister Javad Zarif will hold extensive talks with Sushma Swaraj later on Monday in which he is expected to seek Indian support for Iran’s nuclear deal with six world powers on the wake of Washington’s back off. Zafir’s visit to India is a part of the Iranian effort to reach out to major world powers after the US pulled out from the landmark nuclear deal of 2015. As per the terms in that deal, Iran had agreed to stop its sensitive nuclear activities in return for the lifting of economic sanctions by America. The Chabahar port project will also form part of the discussion.
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The Indian officials clarified that the US sanctions would not affect India’s oil import from Iran. Iran is the third largest oil supplier to India. According to the officials, as long as the UN has not implemented any bans on Iran, it will not affect Iran-India oil import deals.
After the scrapping of Obama administration deal with Iran nuclear deal by Trump, the Iranian Foreign Minister has visited China, Russia and some European countries in the last three weeks. It is also understood that the issue had been figured during an “informal summit” between Indian PM Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian city of Sochi last week. China, Russia and several European nations are affirmative to Iran’s negotiations.
Zarif will return to Iran on Tuesday night. Since PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Tehran in May 2016, Ind0-Iranian ties have been on an upswing. Indian PM’s visit aimed at crafting a strategic relationship with Iran and expand India’s ties with West Asia. Narendra Modi’s visit to Iran marked the signing of some historical pacts with Iran, especially one on the development of Chabahar Port. Later for transport of goods among three countries through the port, a trilateral pact was signed between India, Iran and Afghanistan.The cooperation was further expanded with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to India in February.9 agreements were signed including the one which handed over Chabahar port’s operation to India for 18 months. India is a traditional importer of crude oil from Iran and also have many stable economic and political ties covering many sectors.
USD 12.89 billion worth of trade was done between India and Iran during the 2016-17 fiscal, as notified by the External Affairs Ministry.India’s imports to Iran was worth USD 10.5 billion mainly crude oil and exports worth USD 2.4 billion.
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