TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Hamid Zadboum and Indian Ambassador to Tehran Gaddam Dharmendra met to discuss expansion of trade ties in new areas, TPO portal reported on Sunday.

In this meeting, ways of developing relations in areas such as rail and road transportation, as well as expansion of regional cooperation with countries like Afghanistan and Uzbekistan were explored.

The continuation of preferential trade talks, holding the fourth meeting of the two countries’ Joint Economic Committee, strengthening relations between the two countries’ chambers of commerce, and diversification of export and import baskets were also among the issues discussed by the officials.

The two sides also emphasized the regulation of barter trade between the two countries.

Zadboum for his part, called for facilitation of the activities of Iranian businesses in India, while Dharmendra stressed India's commitment to strengthening and developing relations with Iran.

The ambassador pointed out that the current year marks the 70th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Iran and India had held a new round of negotiations on signing a preferential trade agreement (PTA) between the two sides in mid-February.

Initiated in 2016, the negotiation on this agreement is said to be in the final stages, and the two sides hope that the list of the commodity items entitled to preferential tariffs will be finalized in the next round of the talks.

Back in June, the Vice-chairman of Iran-India Joint Chamber of Commerce Parham Rezaei had said that trade between Iran and India, which was affected by the coronavirus pandemic, was gradually getting back to normal.

EF/MA