U.S. wants to deprive Iran of Indian energy market: Tehran’s envoy to New Delhi
The Hindu, Suhasini Haidar, OCTOBER 18, 2017
U.S. President
Donald Trump’s policy shift would not affect the India-Iran relationship, says
Gholamreza Ansari.
“The U.S. wants to deprive
Iran of the Indian energy market and is working to ensure that India reduce its
oil trade with Iran,” Mr. Ansari told The Hindu in an exclusive interview days
after the U.S. announcement of a tougher line on Iran, even imposition of
possibly new sanctions.
No immediate impact
“I don’t think the U.S.’s
statement [on Iran] will have any immediate impact on the India-Iran
relationship. Our relationship and payment details have been ironed out,” Mr.
Ansari said.
He was referring to a meeting
between Indian and Iranian Finance Ministers on the sidelines of a meeting of
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington where they had discussed
routing payments for India’s imports.
India has cut its oil imports
from Iran by approximately 20% in 2017, though its global imports have risen by
5.4%. Some companies such as Essar oil have dropped imports from Iran in August
by as much as 75%, according to oil industry estimates.
The Petroleum Ministry says
India has been trying to “diversify” its imports so as to get more competitive
rates.
One major development is
India’s decision to import its first shipment of crude oil from the U.S., with
an order of 8.45 million barrels, giving rise to speculation that New Delhi’s
new policy will come at the cost of imports from Iran.
“We want to have good
relations with India, and we understand its need to have eggs in many baskets.
We do, however, want that India’s policy to Iran must not be affected by
others,” Mr. Ansari said, when asked about whether Iran would lose as a result
of the new push for diversification.
In an interview to The
Tehran Times last
week, Indian Ambassador Saurabh Kumar echoed that view on the issue of reduced
oil imports, saying India’s ties “stand on their own feet” and are not a
“zero-sum game” with the “western world”.
Continued
commitment
Speaking
to The Hindu,
the Iranian Ambassador pointed to the development of the Chabahar port as a
sign of India’s continued commitment in Iran.
“The
India-Afghanistan-Iran trilateral agreement for Chabahar should be ratified by
the Iranian parliament in the next few months,” Mr. Ansari said, indicating
that the Iranian government would want to discuss a possible bid for the
management of the port with India as well.
After
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tehran in June 2016, India committed to
invest $500 million, including $85 million in developing two container berths
and three multi-cargo berths at the Chabahar port, as well as about $1.6
billion to build the Chabahar-Zahedan railway line, which will facilitate trade
to Afghanistan.
Port
completion
After
a year of relatively slow progress, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari travelled
to Iran in August 2017, promising to complete the project in 2018.
His
Iranian counterpart, Abbas Akhoundi, is expected to visit New Delhi soon in
order to take the discussions on the Chabahar port forward, while the next
meeting of the Economic Joint Commission is also due, to work on long-standing
differences over Indian banks being used for bilateral trade, officials said.
Mr.
Ansari said he hoped that India would join in the reconstruction effort in
Syria and Iraq after the fall of the Islamic State, which is imminent.
“After
Daesh [IS] is defeated, rebuilding these countries will not be possible without
the cooperation of all countries, and it is an opportunity for both India and
Iran to work together,” he said.
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