Tehran: Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Ali Bagheri on Sunday said that it is on their agenda to use Indian Rupee and Iranian Rial to boost trade and economic exchanges adding that increased investment from India at the Chabahar would advance the completion of the port.

"Any increase in the investment by the Indian party could play an important role in the advances, the progress and the completion of the Chabahar Port," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri said in an exclusive interview with ANI.

"We really welcome any initiative by India for further investment in this project," he added.

Bagheri also said that since Iran is the biggest oil supplier in the world, it is ready to give priority to India if the Indian Government also shows willingness.

"We, as one of the biggest suppliers of oil in the world, are ready to give special priority to India but India should show willingness," he said while speaking to ANI.

On the trade, he said that it is on the Iranian Government's agenda that the trade between the two countries takes place in the national currencies of India and Iran.

"This is on our agenda, using our national currencies in our trade, commercial and economic exchanges particularly the example of India. We have made good progress in this...Hopefully, this could take new momentum and we could see widespread use of our national currencies in this process," the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister said.

Earlier, Iran’s Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani, in a meeting with National Security Advisor of India Ajit Doval in Tehran, called for increased use of the rial and rupee in trade.

"Hope that having meetings with the high-ranking officials and authorities of both countries and also the meeting of the Joint Economic Commission could help us with this process and could give new momentum to expedite this process as much as possible in the use of our national currencies in our trade and in our economic exchanges," added Bagheri.

He said that the Chabar project is not just a project which is restricted to Iran and India. Considering its implication for other regional countries, it (Chabahar Port) is not something that could be best characterized as a regional project," he said.

Senior port state control officer of the Chabahar Port of Iran, Sa Hashemi, on Saturday, said the port’s operator, an Indian company, is going to invest USD 85 million by bringing equipment to carry out loading and discharging at the port.

He said the Chabahar Port's depth is -16 and all the 1,20,000 dead way ships can load, discharge and convert here without any problem.

ANI on Saturday visited Iran's Chabahar port and met the Indians working at the port to get a sense of how the country was conducting day-to-day activities at Shaheed Beheshti port in the Chabahar Free Zone.

Indian Ports Global Limited (IPLG) cranes were seen at the port for loading and unloading of cargo from ships.

There is a huge office of IGPL at the port in Chabahar, which is run by the Indian authority.

Shipping containers were seen at the port while a cargo vessel named DELRUBA, bound for China, was loading iron dust.

Meanwhile, Indian Ambassador to Iran, Rudra Gaurav Shresth, paid a visit to the Chabahar Port on Friday, marking his first visit to the port since assuming charge as an envoy.

The visit came on the heels of him presenting his credentials to the Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, in the first week of July.

“Chabahar is an important project for India and the same was reflected in how the Indian ambassador chose Chabahar for his first official visit outside Tehran,” a source told ANI.

On his first visit to the Chabahar Port, the ambassador interacted with several senior port officials.

The port’s general director, Engineer Asgari, Governor of Chabahar, Dr Sepahi and managing director, India Ports Global Limited, Sunil Mukundan and senior officials of the port also interacted with the envoy.

Ambassador Rudra Gaurav Shresth is a career diplomat and a member of the Indian Foreign Service. He assumed charge as the Indian Ambassador to Iran in May 2023.