TEHRAN (Iran News) –Former Iran’s Ambassador to India says that India is not ready to risk its economic interests for the sake of Iran or any country but in case sanctions against Iran are lifted, it will try to get closer to Iran and will resume its oil imports from Iran.
Speaking to ILNA, Mr. Mohammad Hussein Bani Asadi touched upon Iran’s oil exchanges with India and said that since almost 2020, India has fully stopped buying Iran crude oil and it had no official oil purchase from Iran. He added that India has not had any direct imports of oil and other oil products from Iran but since the outbreak of Russia-Ukraine war and restriction in the market and sanctions on Russia, India has become one of Russia’s oil market and since energy is Achilles ’ Heel of India, this country seeks diversity in receiving energy from different sources.
He went on to say that India first seeks diversifying sources for receiving energy and secondly it seeks buying cheap oil and it means it buys from every country selling with cheaper price. And therefore, New Delhi will buy from it and welcome it even it is ready to buy cheaper oil from Chinese intermediaries, he added.
Bani Asadi noted that now Russia has provided an occasion for Indians and it gives more discount while Russia has had good trade and military ties with India since its independence. He added that since the collapse of USSSR, India has tried to cut its independence on Russian arms and now Israel is India’s major arms supplier to but despite all ups and downs, cooperation of India and Russia is very vast and Russia’s oil has created new opportunity for this country to broaden ties with India.
The former ambassador to New Delhi said that since India seeks cheaper oil, it can resume buying oil from Iran in case the sanctions against Iran are removed but it is very difficult for Iran to regain Indian’s market because some of the refineries have changed their feeding systems.
Before former U.S. President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions, Iran was the third oil supplier to India and it exported 23.9m tons of crude in 2018-9 but after the sanctions were reimposed, the oil exports to India came to a halt.
