TEHRAN- Iran and United Arab Emirates (UAE) resumed bilateral trade exchange via sea, Fars news agency reported quoting the ports affairs director of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO).

Ravanbakhsh Behzadian said that maritime trade between Iran and the UAE had been halted since the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic.

"According to the new health guidelines and protocols, these business communications have resumed between two countries," he added.

Acting Minister of Iranian Industry, Mining and Trade Hossein Modares Khiabani has said on Wednesday that Iran’s exports at borders have been three times more than imports and there are no road-blocks for exports.

Increasing non-oil exports to the neighboring countries is one of the major plans that the Iranian government is pursuing in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 20).

Last month, First Vice-President Es'haq Jahangiri called for developing non-oil exports as the only way for realizing the motto of the surge in production.

“The Foreign Affairs Ministry should provide the necessary bases for the development of [non-oil] exports by expanding and strengthening economic diplomacy,” he said in a meeting on reviewing ways of boosting economic relations with the neighboring countries and supporting non-oil exporters.

Iran shares borders with fifteen countries, namely the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Oman, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.

Emphasizing that 15 neighboring countries and countries such as China and India and Eurasian members should be targeted as the most important export destinations of the country, Jahangiri called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant agencies to strengthen economic diplomacy and focus on these export destination countries to provide the necessary infrastructure for the development of exports to these nations.