TEHRAN: Iran and India are serious for the expansion of bilateral trade ties, Indian Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said Thursday in New Delhi.
She made the remarks after signing an agreement with Trade Promotion Organization of Iran’s Director Valiollah Afkhami-Rad on the promotion of Iran-India trade cooperation, the IRNA news agency reported.
The Indian official stated that Iran and India are two large and important countries in the region and given their potentialities, they could bolster bilateral economic and trade ties in a short period of time.
She evaluated the prospect of trade relation between Iran and India as very good and expressed hope that this agreement would strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries.
For his part, Afkhami-Rad, who traveled India on November 17 on the head of an Iranian trade delegation, evaluated the results of negotiation with the Indian side as positive and expressed hope that the trade cooperation agreement signed between the two countries will lead to a noticeable expansion of bilateral trade ties in the near future.
India was the fourth leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-Septemebr 22), according to the Iran Customs Administration.
Iran exported $1.604 billion of non-oil goods to India and imported $1.401 billion of non-oil products from the country in the seven-month period.
India was also the fourth major importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, with importing $2.441 billion and exporting $3.729 billion of non-oil products from and to Iran, respectively.
