Abstract:

India’s engagement with West Asia including Iran has always been a balancing act hovering between economic necessities and strategic pursuits. The paper briefly traces the evolution of Indo-Iran engagements and also analyses their respective macroeconomic parameters. It also outlines and discusses three major geopolitical and geo-economic influences including sanctions on Iran, payment mechanism, and Iran’s business environment. Moreover, the issues pertaining to access to oil, transit route through Afghanistan and other trade facilitation measures have also been discussed.The paper also uses the revealed comparative advantage index to identify some potential areas of cooperation. Also, it argues that India needs to be more cautious and pragmatic in its strategic endeavours.

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