TEHRAN – Top lawmakers from Iran and Uzbekistan here on Saturday stressed the need for concerted efforts to ensure security and stability in Afghanistan.
Iranian Parliament speaker Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf and his Uzbek counterpart Nuriddinjon Ismoilov talked about a range of bilateral and regional issues.
Calling for “serious cooperation” among the neighboring countries to help Afghanistan, Qalibaf said Iran maintains that all Afghan groups need to play a role in the formation of a national government in order to ensure security and development in that country.
He said a top priority in the Iranian parliament is promotion of relations with the neighboring, regional, Muslim and Central Asian nations in various fields.
Qalibaf said Iran and Uzbekistan can play a fundamental role in the transportation industry via the North-South Corridor.
For his part, Ismoilov lauded the expansion of relations between Uzbekistan and Iran in the past recent years.
Calling for further enhancement of economic and mercantile relations between the two states, the Uzbek speaker emphasized the importance of collaboration in the transportation sector.
Separately, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said there is an appropriate ground for promoting economic cooperation, urging the two countries to make more efforts to boost politico-economic relations.
He said Iran and Uzbekistan have signed 18 agreements and memoranda of understanding for bolstering cooperation, emphasizing that the acceleration of their implementation would greatly increase the level of relations.
Ismailov hailed Iran’s foreign policy which prioritizes the development of relations with neighbors and said in line with such a principled policy, Uzbekistan also gives priority to the expansion of ties with the neighboring countries.