India hopes Hormuz traffic will provide energy relief

NEW DELHI: Resumed shipping flows through the Strait of Hormuz would ease energy and fertiliser supply bottlenecks, India’s security chief said during a BRICS security meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The current state of the crucial waterway for oil and gas transport is uncertain — it reopened last week, after Iran and the United States reached an agreement, but Tehran announced on Saturday it had closed it again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

Indian national security advisor Ajit Doval said its reopening would be a “highly welcome development,” as security chiefs of the BRICS bloc of nations met.

India is heavily reliant on imported energy, and its fuel supplies were hit hard during the US-Iran war.

“It will help ease supply chain bottlenecks, and many of the shortages in fertilisers, chemicals, and other essential commodities may be alleviated,” Doval said.

Doval on Monday met with Iranian official Ghadir Nezamipour, a senior member of Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council, as well as China’s foreign minister Wang Yi.

Other BRICS representatives, including Russia, South Africa, and Brazil, are also in New Delhi.

Maritime traffic in the strait flowed at a faster pace On Monday than before the US-Iranian agreement on talks to end the war, according to tracking firms.

India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal meanwhile began a fresh round of meetings with visiting US trade representative Jamieson Greer in New Delhi.

“Ongoing discussions on finalising the trade deal between the US and India,” US ambassador to India Sergio Gor said, in a social media post.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with President Donald Trump last week on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France on June 17, where he said there had been “significant progress” in long-running talks for a trade deal.

Trump told reporters in Evian that they were “very close”.

Washington and New Delhi have set a target of boosting bilateral trade to US$500 billion by 2030, holding multiple rounds of negotiations in a bid to resolve market access and tariff disputes.