Trade Partners Diversity Indicators of Iran and Asian Countries in International Trade; A Approach of Weighted Complex Network

International trade studies indicate that trade relations of countries at the global and regional levels can be considered as a network and with this network and its indicators; the position of each country and region can be examined and analyzed. In examining the position of countries and their trade partners, unlike bilateral methods that examine only direct trade relations, the approach of network analysis and the resulting statistics -which are known as the indicators of trade partners’ diversity- can consider indirect trade relations and intermediary countries in trade networks. Statistics such as number of partners, degree of intensity, indicators of centrality and central position of each partner in the trade network, can be help to identify and explore connections, and to get a deeper visual understanding of a country's position in the regions and its hidden capacities in the trade network. As a result, the interactions of trade relations (direct and indirect) of all countries with each other can be revealed. This study is based on constructing a weighted matrix of trade relations network of all countries in five periods since 1998 to 2018. The results show that the of Iran's trade position has weakened during the reviewed periods and its network indicators have become more fragile after the sanctions. Based on the ranking of the mixed index obtained from the principal components of the trade partners’ diversity indicators, the appropriate trading partners for Iran in order of priority are: China, Japan, India, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, UAE, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. however, Iran has not been able to fully benefit from the trade capacities of the candidate countries in trade relations.