Korean envoy urges diversification in trade with Iran

South Korea’s ambassador to Iran on Wednesday emphasized the importance of diversification of trade exchanges with Iran, saying that bilateral trade ties should not rely solely on oil, AVA Diplomatic reports.

‘In the current situation, it is necessary that the hurdles on the path ahead of Iran and Korea economic ties are overcome, and the relations between the two countries are enhanced,’ Kim Seung-ho said in a meeting with professors of Mazandaran University.

‘According to the past experiences, if we do not buy Iran’s oil, the bilateral ties will decrease, as it was the case in sanctions era when the US pressures made Korea cut the amount of oil it bought from Iran,’ he said.

‘This reduced Iran-Korea trade exchange.’

Saying that one of the goals of his visit to Mazandaran Province was to explore ways of boosting Iran-Korea economic relations, the senior diplomat added that in the meetings with local business people, we were briefed on the province’s capacities in order to be able to convince investors in various fields to come to the area, since this can help diversification of Iran-Korea relations.

‘The economies of China, Japan and Korea, altogether, will be twice as big as the US in the next 10 years,’ he foresaw.

‘Iran can play a significant role in this regard, as it is a land bridge linking east Asia to Europe, and that’s why the eastern Asian countries want to see the Middle East, particularly Iran, peaceful and stable,’ the ambassador said.