Fearful that China would occupy any space in Iran vacated by India if it adheres to UN and US sanctions, Delhi is determined to engage ‘creatively’ with Iran in a way that won’t anger Washington.
While India’s national security advisor, Shiv Shankar Menon, is expected to press the United States to protect Indian entities from sanctions using an exemption clause available to President Barack Obama, Delhi will simultaneously work on other ideas for engaging in trade with Iran.
One possibility is to advise Indian enterprises venturing into Iran to join Russian, Chinese or Kuwaiti consortiums to make it harder for them to be hit individually with sanctions. They could also be advised to create new corporate identities with no exposure in the United States or European Union. A rupee-rial arrangement is also being proposed to protect Indian banks from sanctions.
Against the troubling backdrop of the Af-Pak crisis, India sees the need to engage politically with regional interests like Iran and wishes to deny China any advantage by quitting the country over sanctions. In addition, India needs Iranian oil and gas and is also keen to export petroleum products to that country.
A Ministry of External Affairs paper titled ‘International Sanctions on Iran and Way Forward for India-Iran Relations’ argues that ‘Political engagement with Iran, while of great importance, may not be sufficient to ensure that our interests are protected. Economic engagement with Iran is also necessary and would help us in promoting our energy security, connectivity and opening of new markets, and to underpin our political objectives.’
Interestingly, the same paper observes that China was ‘taking a conscious decision to step into the vacuum created by the exit of western and other companies,’ which would give it additional leverage in Iran.
Reddit
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
Technorati
Yahoo
Google
Plurk
The_Observer
Can’t see anything wrong with either if the three countries, China, India and Russia want to trade with Iran. Those countries do not have a problem with the regime in Teheran nor with the Iranian people. The USA and the British have a problem with Iran because if the latter’s influence increases it affects the former’s compliant Arab client states in the Gulf and Iran also then becomes a counter-balance to the USA’s pit-bull state, Israel. That is why a USA/Israel bombing of Iran will occur. All that China and Russia can do is to prevent the legitimacy for such action at the UN. Those two countries will have to be on the look-out for any USA sponsored UN Security Council resolution that, being too broad, would allow for such bombing.
Fancesco
Cyrus, ?Considering the role of the Military Industrial Complex in the US? even a US psierdent warned about it? I think Clinton should mine her own backyard first.?Well said Cyrus, thank you.