60-member trade delegation to visit India this week

TEHRAN,May 2(MNA) - A large Iranian trade delegation, including 60 merchants and commercial executives of the private sector, accompanied by a number of officials from the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, is scheduled to travel to India on Sunday, aiming to broaden economic cooperation between the two countries. An official with the Tehran Chamber of Commerce said that dispatching trade delegations to neighboring countries, which have high potentials to boost economic ties with Iran, is among prioritized policies. Mohammad-Mehdi Rasekh added that delegations would soon be sent to India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. An 80-member Indian delegation, headed by Indian Joint Commerce Secretary Arvind Mehta, arrived in Tehran on March 10 for a five-day visit to discuss the expansion of trade ties between the two nations. Tehran and New Delhi plan to hit $25 billion in annual bilateral trade in the next four years, said Mehta. The Indian official said current annual trade between the two countries was around $15 billion. Iran is India's second-largest oil supplie; New Delhi purchases nearly $12 billion worth of Iranian crude every year, about 12 percent of its total consumption. The two countries have recently signed an agreement for Iranian oil exports to India, based on which New Delhi will pay for 45 percent of its crude imports in rupees as a means of bypassing new U.S. sanctions against Iran's oil and financial sectors.