India will only abide by UN sanctions: Sushma
Minister made comments ahead of meeting with Iranian foreign minister
NEWDELHI: India adhered to sanctions imposed by the United Nations but not the ones slapped by any other country such as those announced by the United States against Iran, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday.
The minister’s remarks came at her annual press conference and hours before she met visiting Irani foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“India follows only UN sanctions and not unilateral sanctions by any country,” Swaraj said at to a question on New Delhi’s response to the US decision to bring back sanctions against Iran.
Early this month, US President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran and ordered return of sanctions America had lifted after signing of the 2015 accord.
Iran is India’s third largest oil exporter, with Tehran supplying 18.4 million tonne of crude to India between April 2017 and January 2018.
Bilateral trade between the two countries amounted to $12.9 billion in 2016-17. India imported $10.5 billion worth of goods, mainly crude oil, and exported commodities worth $2.4 billion.
New Delhi has also made a huge investment in developing the strategically important Chabahar port in eastern Iran that connects Afghanistan to Central Asia bypassing Pakistan.
“The external affairs minister conveyed that all parties to the agreement should engage constructively for peaceful resolution of the issues that have arisen with respect to the agreement,” a statement from the external affairs ministry said after Swaraj’s meeting with Zarif.
The energy ties apart, India and Iran enjoy long-standing political ties. Swaraj said India’s decision on ties with Iran or its position on sanctions was independent of any other country.
Zarif, who has been to Moscow, Beijing and Brussels, arrived in India on Sunday night.
The Iranian leader, who led his side in negotiating the 2015 accord, is here to seek support against US dumping the agreement, which the other signatories — UK, Russia, China, France and Germany — are keen to salvage.
Zarif briefed Swaraj about the discussions that Iran “has undertaken with parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) following the US decision to withdraw from the Agreement,” said the release. The Iran deal is also known as JCPOA.
“The two sides positively assessed the implementation of decisions taken during the visit of President Rouhani to India. These included bilateral cooperation in the areas of connectivity, energy, trade and promotion of people to people contacts,” the release said.
New Delhi would be worried about secondary sanctions through which the Trump administration can prevent foreign countries from accessing the US market unless they go along with the sanctions.
Swaraj also said India had no plans to use Venezuela’s cryptocurrency “petro” in oil trade with the Latin American nation, which, too, is facing US sanctions.
Responding to a question, the minister cited a Reserve bank of India (RBI) order, saying it did not allow trade in cryptocurrency.
Meanwhile, while at the press conference, Swaraj had mentioned Modi’s outreach to ‘Indians’ in places as diverse as Madison Square in US to Janakpur in Nepal as unprecedented, she tweeted a ‘sincere apology’ late on Monday night — with a clip of the comment, mentioning this was a ‘mistake’ on her part.
The apology is being interpreted for the reference to Nepali citizens of the country’s Tarai plains, bordering India, Modi had addressed in Janakpur, as ‘Indians’.