Iran has sent a large trade delegation to Serbia with the aim of expanding economic relations with the European country.
Reports published in local media on Sunday said Iran’s Deputy Trade Minister Alireza Peymanpak was heading the trade delegation that traveled to Serbia earlier in the day.
They said Peymanpak, who also heads Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, will hold talks with senior Serbian government officials, including Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic, during his trip to the country.
Senior businessmen, including a vice president of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, are also among the members of the Iranian trade delegation during the visit to Serbia, said the reports.
It will be a first time in years that a trade delegation from Iran is visiting a European country as trade ties between Iran and Europe have been at their lowest since the United States imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018.
Iran has sought to offset the impacts of the American sanctions on its oil exports by relying more on the non-oil sector of the economy and by encouraging increased trade with the rest of the world.
Non-oil exports from Iran reached nearly $50 billion in the calendar year to March, a sign the new Iranian trade policy has largely paid off.
Last week, TPO chief Peymanpak led a large Iranian delegation to Uzbekistan where he signed major agreements to allow increased trade between the two countries.