Baku, Azerbaijan, July 9
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has expressed readiness to boost all-out ties with India.
He made the remarks during a meeting with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on July 9 on the sidelines of the BRICS and SCO summits in Ufa, Russia.
Rouhani said that the Islamic Republic sees no obstacle for the development of economic and cultural relations with India, the official website of the Iranian president said.
Iran is ready to cooperate with India in the sectors of oil and gas as well as development of Iran's southeastern Chabahar port and facilitating the cooperation between the private sectors of the two countries especially in the fields of science and technology, Rouhani said.
The Iranian president also underlined the important role of the two countries in fight against terrorism, saying Iran-India cooperation should not be limited to trade and economic fields.
The two countries' cooperation is necessary in order to eradicate terrorism in the region, Rouhani said.
Iran and India have recently signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the strategic port of Chabahar . The port is located in Sistan and Balochistan Province on the Sea of Oman, near Iran 's border with Pakistan and is of great strategic use to India , which will get a sea-land access route to Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan .
India intends to lease two berths at Chabahar for 10 years.
Iran has also proposed a free-trade agreement with India. Rupee-denominated trade with Iran, started in 2012 because of complications arising from international sanctions against Iran, has almost doubled Indian exports to Tehran in the past two years to $4 billion.
India was the 4th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian fiscal year, which ended on March 20, 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
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