The foreign ministers of India and Iran on Tuesday emphasized the necessity to expand bilateral cooperation in various areas, a statement issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry read.
In a telephone conversation, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian discussed “a range of regional and international issues” and topics relating to cooperation between the two nations.
The conversation between the two foreign ministers took place amid hiccups in trade ties, as Tehran suspended processing new orders for imports of rice and tea from India. According to media reports, the trade suspension comes in the wake of a delay in the outcome of talks between the two countries on a rupee trade settlement mechanism.
“The ban is not restricted to rice and also includes other agricultural products such as tea. It will be lifted as soon as bilateral trade is balanced out, or registers growth,” Masih Keshavarz, secretary of Iran’s Rice Suppliers Commission, said.
Indian Ministry of Commerce data showed that bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $1.98 billion in the first nine months of 2022, with Iranian exports to India at $474 million.
Tehran has been urging Delhi to resume the oil trade by "ignoring” unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States, in an effort to replicate Delhi’s approach to Russian oil.
In February this year, Iran and India agreed on boosting economic and trade cooperation irrespective of the developments in the talks on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).