NEW DELHI: India aims to expand its annual oil purchases from Iraq from 1 billion barrels currently, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Twitter after meeting his Iraqi counterpart Hayan Abdel-Ghani in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Iraq used to be India’s top oil supplier but has slipped to second position as Indian refiners have ramped up purchases of Russian oil, sold at a discount since the war in Ukraine led to Western sanctions on Russia.

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India is Iraq’s second largest trade partner with annual trade worth $37 billion, Puri said.

“In addition to matters pertaining to energy and hydrocarbon trade, we also discussed ways of further expanding our trade basket and strengthening cooperation in other fields, including trade and investment, health and education, sports, medical tourism and capacity building,” he said.