President Hassan Rouhani has embarked on a tour of Southeastern Asia on Wednesday, which takes him to Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.
In his two-day stay in Vietnam, Rouhani was scheduled to co-chair a meeting of the two sides' high-ranking delegations with his counterpart, Tran Dai Quang, focused on expansion of bilateral cooperation.
Several documents of cooperation were slated to be signed during the Hanoi talks, ISNA reported.
Rouhani will then head for Kuala Lumpur, where he is expected to explore closer bilateral economic ties in meetings with the host's senior officials, including Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Thailand will be the last stop on the presidential tour, which will host Rouhani, along with some heads of other Asian states, in the Second Asia Cooperation Dialogue Summit.
Rouhani is to address the event, which will take place from Oct. 8-10 and meet with Thai officials on its sidelines.
ACD, which was inaugurated in June 2002 in Cha-Am, Thailand, where 18 Asian foreign ministers met for the first time, is a continent-wide forum, the first of its kind in Asia.
It aims to consolidate Asian strengths, fortify Asia's competitiveness by maximizing diversity by promoting positive thinking, informality, voluntarism, non-institutionalization, openness and respect for diversity, the ACD website says.
Since its inception, ACD has rapidly developed in two dimensions, namely dialogue and projects, and currently has 34 members.
Rouhani told reporters before departing Tehran that the Islamic Republic is keen to exploit opportunities offered by the Bangkok forum to develop cooperation with Asian countries, especially on food, water and energy.
Asked to explain the goals of his tour, the president said Vietnam is among the major Southeast Asian countries whose economy has grown in recent years.
"There exist close ties between Tehran and Hanoi, and the visit is intended to boost bilateral cooperation in a range of domains, including technical and engineering services," he said.
Rouhani said he would use his Malaysia visit to help reinforce relations with the influential Muslim country.
