TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The trade exchanges between Iran and the United Arab Emirates in the 12-month period closing on March 20, 2023 reached $24 billion.
Trade between Iran and the United Arab Emirates surged in this period, business people and officials said on Sunday.
The executives said the UAE has in recent months rolled back limits on corporate registrations and the issuance of visas to companies from Iran.
Iranian financiers are also exploring how to enhance bilateral trade by creating financial mechanisms to fund legitimate transactions, they added, the Financial Times reported.
Flourishing trade relations between Iran and the UAE, the traditional center for re-exports into the Islamic Republic, forms part of the Persian Gulf state’s pivot towards regional de-escalation and a focus on business.
“UAE foreign policy seems to have shifted toward one that is primarily driven by economic statecraft,” said Afshin Molavi, senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in the US.
The UAE’s diplomatic outreach to Iran since 2019 has been strengthened by the China-brokered breakthrough this year that re-established relations between the Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi-Iranian rapprochement has raised hopes that ongoing negotiations could extend into a lasting political settlement.
Earlier, concurrent with the visit of the Iranian foreign minister to Abu Dhabi, Iran and the United Arab Emirates inked a bilateral agreement for the development of air transport services between the two countries.
Last year, a high-ranking economic delegation from Iran, headed by Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari, traveled to the United Arab Emirates to bolster trade and economic ties.
