Baku, Azerbaijan, May 6
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the country is ready to act as a bridge to connect India to Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
Rouhani made the remarks in a meeting in Tehran with Indian Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Iran 's Fars news agency reported May 6.
Tehran and New Delhi have many common interests, Rouhani said, adding that the Iranian and the Indian economies can complement each other.
Iran can play a key role in connecting India to Central Asia, Caucasus, and Eastern Europe via road and rail networks, he stressed.
The Indian official, for his part, outlined India 's capacities to invest in the Iranian market, saying that New Delhi is interested in making investment in Iran 's ports, as well as roads and rails networks.
India and Iran agreed in 2003 to develop a port at Chabahar on the Sea of Oman, near Iran's border with Pakistan, but the venture has made little progress because of Western sanctions on Iran.
Iran has also proposed a free-trade agreement with India, a trade ministry source said. Rupee-denominated trade with Iran, started in 2012 because of complications arising from sanctions, has almost doubled Indian exports to Tehran in the past two years to $4 billion.
Now Indian exporters want to build on that, using a free-trade zone being developed near Chabahar to export more to the Commonwealth of Independent States.
India was the 4th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.
Iran exported $2.44 billion of non-oil goods to India and imported $3.72 billion of non-oil goods from the country.
Edited by CN