ABSTRACT
India-Iran relations go back more than two millennia. Despite high level exchanges, the relationship between India and Iran has not fully reflected the strength of linguistic and cultural ties, or the interests they share. Still, India was among the few countries which continued to buy crude oil from Iran during the sanctions period. Also, Iran offers India unique advantages in terms of access to Afghanistan and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. This has been done by developing the Chabahar port and the Chabahar-Zahedan-Mashad railway. There is also a convergence of interests between Iran’s surplus hydrocarbon resources and India’s fast growing economy. However, in the post-sanction phase, the environment will become more competitive. In order to sustain and increase exports, India has to move into the project export sector. There is need to establish normal banking channels to handle two-way trade.
