Iranian President Starts Turkey Visit

Heading a high-ranking political and economic delegation, the Iranian president has travelled to the neighboring country at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to attend the fifth round of Iran-Turkey high council of strategic cooperation.

During the 2-day presidential visit, high-ranking delegations from the two countries are expected to sign a number of political, economic and cultural agreements.

Speaking to reporters before leaving Tehran, Rouhani stressed the need to develop relations with Turkey as a friendly country and said, “The stances of the Turkish government, as a friendly and effective country in the region, and Mr. Erdogan in the recent months against the US sanctions plots against the Islamic Republic of Iran have been very good and firm.”

“Most of our neighbors, including Turkey, have explicitly stated that the times of dictating policies by the United States to others is over and America is no longer able to dictate to the region and relations among great nations of the region from thousands of kilometers away,” he added.

“In this visit, bilateral, regional, global and international issues will be discussed. The majority of negotiations will be regarding economic cooperation between the two countries, banking and commercial relations, energy, oil and gas,” Rouhani said.

“Economic cooperation between the two countries is currently around $10 billion, which is not enough and we have stressed in the past 2, 3 years that the cooperation should be increased to $30,” the president added.

Iran and Turkey have ramped up efforts in recent years to boost bilateral trade, setting a $30-billion annual trade target and signing several agreements to enhance cooperation in various areas.

Turkey is one of Iran’s major trading partners in the region.