Given the ongoing regional and global conditions, defense and security cooperation will be effective in strengthening peace, stability and security in the region and in the world, Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said in a meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow in Ashgabat on Tuesday.
The minister further voiced Iran’s readiness for all-out cooperation with neighboring Turkmenistan, including the defense and security ties.
Describing terrorism and drug trafficking as two major sources of insecurity in the region, Dehqan added, “Given its long experience in countering these ominous phenomena, the Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to convey its experiences to and cooperate with the neighbors in those fields.”
For his part, the Turkmen president praised Iran’s development in a whole host of areas, particularly in the sphere of defense technologies and engineering services, and hoped for the expansion of Tehran-Ashgabat ties in all fields.
Dehqan has visited Turkmenistan at the invitation of his Turkmen counterpart Begenc Gundogdyyew.
This is the first trip by an Iranian defense minister to Turkmenistan following its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.