Iran Willing to Boost Trade Ties with Turkey: President Rouhani
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani highlighted the importance of the country’s relations with neighboring Turkey and said Tehran is willing to boost ties with Ankara in all areas, economy in particular.
“In recent years, valuable steps have been taken for the development of relations between Iran and Turkey, and this process needs to accelerate,” Rouhani said at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the sidelines of the 5th summit of Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe on Saturday.
He also described regional cooperation between Iran and Turkey as important, saying the two countries’ cooperation with each other and with Russia regarding regional issues, the Astana peace process, and the reconstruction of Syria is very important for strengthening peace and stability in the region.
Rouhani further emphasized that Tehran is willing to cement ties with Ankara in all fields of mutual interest, especially economy and trade.
Erdogan, for his part, said that bilateral ties between Iran and Turkey are close and developing in all fields.
Tehran and Ankara 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 which has come under pressure from Washington to stop working with Tehran under a fresh wave of US anti-Iran sanctions.
Turkey has emphasized that the US demands to stop purchasing oil and gas from Iran would go unheeded by Ankara.
