How does the United States pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal impact India?

Indian on Wednesday addressed the United States’ decision to pull out of the nuclear deal with Iran.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said, “India has always maintained that Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and diplomacy by respecting Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy international community’s strong interest in exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme.”

The US announced that it would pull out of the nuclear deal late Tuesday. However, the move will not affect the deal as long as other signatories i.e. the U.K., France, Russia, China, Germany and the European Union remain committed to it.

According to a report in The Hindu, India could be affected by the US decision with respect several factors, the main being oil prices. Iran is presently India’s third biggest supplier (after Iraq and Saudi Arabia), and any increase in prices will hit both inflation levels as well as the Indian rupee, which breached Rs 67 to the U.S. dollar this week. In the past week alone, crude prices have crossed $70/bbl (barrel) level, touching a four-year high.  After Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to New Delhi in February, India committed to increasing its oil imports from Iran.

India has also committed $85 million to the development of Chabahar port in southeastern Iran and the US pulling out of the deal would bring plans of developing the region.

 US President Donald Trump has announced on Tuesday that he is pulling out of an international nuclear deal with Iran, European officials said, in a move that would raise the risk of conflict in the Middle East, upset America's European allies and disrupt global oil supplies.

The 2015 deal, the signature foreign policy achievement of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program to prevent it from being able to make an atomic bomb. Trump in his press conference blasted the Iran deal, called it 'disastrous' and 'embarrassment'. Announcing that US is pulling away from the Iran deal, Trump said US will be much safer without it. Trump said highest level of economic sanctions would be imposed against Iran and any nation helping them to get nuclear weapons would also face sanctions.

Speaking out against the deal, Trump said, " At the point when the US had maximum leverage, this disastrous deal gave this regime — and it's a regime of great terror — many billions of dollars, some of it in actually cash, a great embarrassment to me as a citizen". He blamed the Obama administration for getting a weak deal.

With Reuters Inputs