Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 27
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The first trade delegation of Britain will travel to Iran next week after Iran and world powers signed an agreement on Iran's nuclear program in July.
Martin Johnson, Director General of British-Iranian Chamber of Commerce will lead the delegation. Meanwhile, Richard Dalton, the former British ambassador to Iran, will accompany the delegation, Iran's Shana news agency reported on September 27.
The 24-member delegation will arrive in Tehran on October 2. It will be comprised of representatives from oil and gas, service, and finance sectors.
This is the first UK trade delegation in 10 years which will pay visit to Iran.
British Chancellor George Osborne has announced plans to take Britain's biggest-ever trade delegation to Iran next year if Tehran stays true to a nuclear deal with world powers.
"Next year I would love to lead a proper, big economic and trade delegation to Iran," he added.
Britain was one of the first western countries to formally engage with Iran after the nuclear settlement was signed in July.
Last month Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond led a diplomatic and trade delegation to re-open the British Embassy in Tehran after nearly four years without diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Prior to the Western-led sanctions against Iran in 2011, the Iran-UK trade was more than €623 million, compared to €256 million in 2012, which further fell to €121 million in the same year due to the escalation of sanctions, according to the Eurostat.
The figure stood at over €121 million back in 2013.
However, the two-way trade took an ascending tend in 2014 in the wake of the interim nuclear accord reached between Iran and world powers, touching €152 million.
There between the two countries amounted to €80 million in the first half of 2015, a 9 percent decrease compared to the same period in 2014.