Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi and Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak, who jointly chaired the 12th session of Iran-Russia Cooperation Commission in Moscow, signed several agreements on energy, marine and banking cooperation on Thursday.
The two sides also pledged to raise annual bilateral trade to reach up to $40 billion based on a roadmap devised after three-day marathon talks among 60 representatives from Iran’s public and private sectors and their Russian counterparts.
“The agreement [on the roadmap] is an opportunity to revamp relations between the two neighboring countries,” IRNA quoted the Iranian minister as saying.
Novak was more optimistic about Tehran-Moscow potential to increase their commercial ties, saying “bilateral trade could reach some $10 billion annually in the short-term, compared to just $1.6 billion in 2014.”
Referring to Iran’s bid to join Eurasian Development Bank, Vaezi said the process would take a couple of years but it is achievable.
Moscow has indicated it will support Iran’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union after the sanctions end.
Vaezi also called on the public sectors of the two sides to reduce restrictive regulations to lay the basis for the implementation of the deals by the executive officials and the private sector.
“Moscow is set to expand cooperation in banking, veterinary, agriculture and high technology, particularly nanotechnology with Tehran,” said the Russian minister, adding that to boost economic exchange his country is ready to deliver grain to Iran.
“Airplane and helicopter sales to Iran, construction of freight and passenger wagons and renovation of railroad network as well as construction of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant are among Russia’s projects in Iran. Implementation of the roadmap devised by the two sides would improve mutual ties.”
Novak also announced that 25 Iranian companies, namely 19 seafood producers, four dairy companies and two poultry producer companies, have secured exporting permits from Russia’s agricultural watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor.
Also, Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Healthcare Minister Veronika Skvortsova underlined the importance of trade ties with Iran in separate meetings with Vaezi.
“Russia has allocated a credit line for infrastructure projects in Iran, especially those in transportation and power plant sectors,” said the Russian finance minister.
Earlier, IRNA had quoted Vaezi as saying that Moscow has allocated a credit line worth $5 billion for its joint projects with Iran.
Russian Minister of Healthcare Veronika Skvortsova stressed the fact that her country is one of the largest pharmaceutical markets of the world, therefore it is ready to import medicine from Iran.
