India’s foreign trade largely unaffected by Hormuz disruptions: Sarbananda Sonowal

Guwahati, July 19: Despite the war in West Asia and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, India’s foreign trade has not been affected much, said Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday. Talking to The Assam Tribune , Sonowal pointed out that economies of many countries have been affected due to the West Asia conflict. “But India’s economy has not been affected that much,” he said. The minister admitted that frequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz has affected every country as 60 per cent of oil and gas of the world are produced by the Gulf countries. But India has made arrangements to procure energy resources from other oil and gas producing countries while managing the situation well, he said. Sonowal said that 95 per cent of India’s foreign trade (by volume) is done through the maritime routes and the closure of Hormuz is “definitely a challenge”. But at the same time, India has been using a number of other routes for foreign trade, he added. “We are using several other routes for foreign trade. We are comfortably reaching out to European countries, African countries and even the USA. We now have a new route to Russia. So our foreign trade has not been affected much due to frequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. But at the same time, Sonowal admitted that trade with the Gulf countries will definitely be affected if the strait remains closed for a long time.